The word derives from the Old English scir , meaning an administrative district or a "share" of land. In the Anglo-Saxon period (c. 5th–11th centuries), a shire was a territory controlled by a royal official known as a shire reeve – or as we call them today, a . Many of these shires were centered on a principal town, which gave the shire its name (e.g., Gloucester + shire = Gloucestershire).