Duchy of Lancaster (1983: Doomsday)

Introduction
A survivor nation in the former English county of Lancashire in the north-west of England. It is bordered by Rheged to the north and the Celtic Alliance to the south.

Pre-Doomsday
Lancashire was a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the north-west of England. It took its name from the city of Lancaster, and was sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster was still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council was based in Preston. The population of the county according to the 1981 census was 1,242.1 thousand.

The history of Lancashire is thought to have begun with its founding in the 12th century. In the Domesday Book (1086), some of its lands had been treated as part of Yorkshire. The area in between the rivers Mersey and Ribble (referred to in the Domesday Book as "Inter Ripam et Mersam") formed part of the returns for Cheshire. Once its initial boundaries were established, it bordered Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire and Cheshire.

Lancashire emerged during the Industrial Revoluntion as a major commercial and industrial region. The county encompassed several hundred mill towns and collieries. By the 1830s, approximately 85% of all cotton manufactured worldwide was processed in Lancashire. Accrington, Blackburmn, Bolton, Chorley, Darwen and Burnley were major cotton mill towns during this time. Blackpool was a major centre for tourism for the inhabitants of Lancashire's mill towns, particularly during wakes week.

The county was subject to a significant boundary reform in 1974, which removed Liverpool and Manchester with most of their surrounding conurbations to form part of the metropolitan counties of Merseyside and Greater Manchester. At this time, the detached northern part of Lancashire in the Lake District, including the Furness Peninsula and Cartmell, was made part of Cumbria.

The Pre-Doomsday Duchy of Lancaster was one of two remaining royal duchies in the United Kingdom. It had large landholdings throughout the region and elsewhere, and operated as a property company, but also exercised the right of the Crown in the County Palatine of Lancaster, which included areas that were removed from Lancashire as part of the 1974 boundary changes.

High Sheriffs for Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside were appointed "within the Duchy and County Palatine of Lancaster".

The Duchy administered bona vacantia within the County Palatine, receiving the property of persons who die intestate, and where the legal ownership cannot be ascertained.

There was no separate Duke of Lancaster, the title having merged in the Crown many centuries ago – but the Duchy was administered by the Queen in Right of the Duchy of Lancaster. A separate court system for the county palatine was finally abolished by Courts Act 1971.

The duchy was not the property of The Crown, but was instead the personal (inherited) property of the monarch and had been since 1399, when the Dukedom of Lancaster, held by Henry of Bolingbroke, merged with the crown on his appropriation of the throne (after the dispossession from Richard II).

Doomsday
In the early hours of 26th September 1983, nuclear weapons started detonating over the UK. In the north-east of England, the major detonations were: There were also a number of small yield (5-10 KT) tactical nukes hitting various military targets in the area, most of which were in the vicinity of the town of Preston. These included: Fortunately, while the south of the county took heavy damage, apart from Barrow-in-Furness, the north of Lancashire survived relatively unscathed.
 * Manchester - second wave (200 KT), re-hit with third wave (100KT)
 * Liverpool - (200KT), hit to the north of the city, over Aintree.
 * The port at Barrow-in-Furness
 * Burtonwood Army Depot
 * Warton Aerodrome
 * RAF Barton Hall
 * Weeton Barracks

Aftermath
The northern most part of the county, which included the city of Lancaster and the surrounding towns of Morecambe, Bare, and Heysham, was particularly unaffected by the blasts and the resulting fallout. In addition, they were far enough away from other major populationcentresto delay the influx of refugees for several days, long enough for the authorities and population to get to grips with the situation. Even when it did occur, the number of refugees was far from overwhelming and this combined with the already relatively low population allowed order to be maintained and supplies rationed relatively easily.

The towns to the south of the county, particularly Preston, were not as fortunate for several reasons. Firstly the far closer proximity of the nuclear blasts caused greater panic then further north, and secondly the larger population combined with an influx of refugees, who were often injured or suffering radiation poisoning, from the areas closest to the blasts, combined with certain opportunistic criminal elements made keeping order and rationing supplies problematic.

Contact was lost between the various parts of the county immediately after Doomsday due to a combination of the EMP and the electricity supply going dead. Contact was not re-established for well over a week, as people followed the government advice to stay indoors for a minimum of three days after a nuclear attack, followed by a period of staying close to their own towns while those in charge worked out what to do next. Eventually contact was gradually re-established by scouts from the various major town, with contact with Preston being further delayed by the necessity of avoiding the radiation coming from the bombed RAF Barton Hall site.