The first official county championship was held in 1890. Before this date the champions were decided by newspapers or by 'popular' acclaim.

Gloucestershire, Kent, Lancashire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Sussex and Yorkshire competed in 1890 when the positions were decieded by number of losses minus number of wins with each county playing no more than 16 matches.

Somerset joined in 1891 and Derbyshire, Essex, Hampshire, Leicestershire and Warwickshire took part in 1895 when each county had to play more than 16 matches. Worcestershire joined in 1899 and Northamptonshire were included in 1905. Worcestershire missed the 1919 season and Glamorgan joined in 1921.

In 1929 every team had to play exactly 28 matches and positions were decided by number of points gained for the first time. Previously they had been decided by various percentage methods such as points as a percentage of possible points.

Numerous other points systems, rules and numbers of games played were tried and in 1977 the competition got its first sponser which was Schweppes.

Britannic Assurance became sponsors in 1983 and ten years later in 1993, one season after Durham joined, every team played each other once in a four day game.

The competition was sponsored by PPP Healthcare in 1999 ahead of the biggest change in the competition's history: it was split into two divisions based on the 1999 finishing positions.

Gloucestershire have never one the official championship although they have been runners up on numourous occasions. In 1930 they missed out by just three points having won five more games than the first placed side. They were most recently second in 1986.

Gloucestershire were undisputed unofficial champions in 1876 and 1877, they were widely agreed to have won it in 1874 and in 1873 they were widely agreed to have shared it with Nottinghamshire.