Have you ever seen a wildlife record labelled VC61, VC62 or VC64 and wondered what it means? These letters and numbers refer to vice-counties — traditional geographical divisions used by naturalists to record and study Britain's wildlife.

Although the system is particularly familiar to botanists, vice-counties have a much broader place in British natural history. They provide a consistent way of organising records of plants, fungi and many other groups of wildlife, allowing observations made today to be compared with those collected generations ago.

What does VC stand for?
VC stands for vice-county. You may also encounter the term Watsonian vice-county, named after the botanist Hewett Cottrell Watson, who developed the system in the nineteenth century.
Unlike modern administrative counties, vice-counties have fixed boundaries designed for biological recording. They do not change when local government reorganises county boundaries.

This stability is important. If a botanist recorded a rare plant in a particular vice-county 150 years ago, today's naturalists can use the same geographical framework to investigate whether that plant is still present.

Who invented the system, and when?
The system was introduced by Hewett Cottrell Watson (1804–1881), an English botanist interested in the distribution of plants across Britain.
Watson introduced his vice-county divisions in 1852, in the third volume of his work Cybele Britannica. His aim was to make botanical records more systematic and easier to compare between different parts of the country.
Traditional counties varied considerably in size, making them less convenient for studying the distribution of wild plants. Watson divided some of the larger counties into smaller recording areas while retaining existing county boundaries wherever practical.

"His work helped establish a geographical framework that naturalists continue to use today"

How many vice-counties are there?
The British system comprises 112 vice-counties, numbered from VC1 to VC112. Ireland has a further 40 vice-counties, numbered separately from VC1 to VC40.

The numbers identify particular recording areas; they are not postcodes or modern county codes.
Yorkshire, for example, is divided into five vice-counties:
VC61 — South-east Yorkshire
VC62 — North-east Yorkshire
VC63 — South-west Yorkshire
VC64 — Mid-west Yorkshire
VC65 — North-west Yorkshire
These divisions allow wildlife records to be associated with a consistent geographical area, regardless of changes to modern administrative boundaries.

Why are vice-counties still important?
The greatest advantage of vice-counties is their long-term stability. Naturalists can compare historical records with modern observations without having to account for repeated changes in county boundaries.

This is particularly useful when studying changes in the distribution of species. Records may reveal that a plant has disappeared from an area, spread into new territory or become increasingly scarce over time.

Vice-counties originated in botany, but their use extends into other areas of natural history, including fungi, mosses, insects and some wildlife recording schemes. Their importance varies between disciplines, and many modern projects also use precise grid references and other geographical systems.
Vice-counties and birdwatching

Birdwatchers may encounter vice-county references in local wildlife publications, historical records and some recording databases. However, bird recording does not universally use vice-counties as its main geographical system. Many bird clubs and recording schemes use their own local boundaries or the national grid.

For anyone exploring older natural history records, understanding vice-counties can be a useful way of interpreting where an observation was made and relating it to records collected in the past.

A Victorian idea with a lasting legacy
Hewett Cottrell Watson's system is a remarkable example of how a nineteenth-century scientific idea can remain useful well into the modern age.
Every wildlife observation contributes to our understanding of the natural world. By recording species consistently, today's naturalists help build a body of knowledge that future generations can use to understand how Britain's wildlife changes over time.

The next time you see a species recorded as VC61 or VC64, you will know that the reference belongs to a recording system established more than 170 years ago — one that continues to connect naturalists across generations.

Further information
For more about vice-counties and biological recording, explore the 
vice-county overview on Wikipedia, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland and the National Biodiversity Network