16 May: Middlesex Day

16 May is the anniversary of the Battle of Albuera in which the Middlesex Regiment played a part, and in recent years has been celebrated as Middlesex Day. An event to recognise and celebrate the historic county of Middlesex. So here are 10 things you may not know about the place:

1. The area has been formally settled since the 8th century and was part of the Kingdom of Essex. In fact, many places now considered to be part of London were once in Middlesex, including: Edmonton, Hounslow, Westminster, Finsbury, Holborn, Kensington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Islington, Highgate and Twickenham.
2. The name means "territory of the Middle Saxons".
3. There is some dispute over whether the county of Middlesex still exists or not. It is commonly believed it ceased to exist when the London Government Act 1963 came into force, but the act actually merely disbanded the County Council while the county itself was never officially dissolved so therefore still exists.
4. Middlesex was once a rural area, its economy dependent on agriculture and tourists from London wanting a day out in the country. However, the coming of the railways made it a good place for commuters to live and so the land was increasingly built on until Middlesex towns and villages merged with London. Sir John Betjeman wrote, "Dear Middlesex, dear vanished country friend,Your neighbour, London, killed you in the end."
5. Middlesex and Essex had the same coat of arms, three notched swords on a red background. The Sheriff's Office of the County of London also used it. In 1910 it was proposed that the arms of Middlesex should change in order to distinguish it from the others. Colonel Otley Parry, a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex and expert on military badges, was asked to devise an addition to the shield. He chose a "Saxon Crown", derived from the portrait of King Athelstan on a silver penny of his reign, thought to be the earliest form of crown associated with an English sovereign.
6. Middlesex has a county flower, the wood anemone, chosen in 2002 by the plant conservation charity Plantlife.
7. It doesn't have a county town, certainly not since 1789, and possibly never. For Middlesex, the functions of a county town are fulfilled by London.
8. The first Cash Dispenser in the world was installed at Barclays Bank, Enfield, Middlesex, in 1967. Reg Varney, from On the Buses was the first person to withdraw cash from the machine.
9. There was once an Earl of Middlesex. The title was created in 1622 and lasted until the third Earl died childless in 1674.
10. Thomas Babington wrote in 1843, "An acre in Middlesex is worth a principality in Utopia".