County town

A county town is a county's current or former administrative centre in the United Kingdom, Ireland, or Jamaica. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county. The concept of a county town eventually became detached from its original meaning of where the county administration or county hall is based. In fact, many county towns are no longer part of "their" administrative county. For example, Nottingham is administered by a unitary authority entirely separate from the rest of Nottinghamshire. Many county towns are classified as cities, but all are referred to as county towns regardless of whether city status is held or not.

UK county towns pre 19th-century reforms

Historic counties of England

This list shows county towns prior to the reforms of 1889.

County	County town
Bedfordshire	Bedford
Berkshire	Abingdon, supplanted by Reading^1[1]
Buckinghamshire	Aylesbury^2, although the county is named after Buckingham
Cambridgeshire	Cambridge
Cheshire	Chester
Cornwall	Truro^3
Cumberland	Carlisle^4
Derbyshire	Derby
Devon	Exeter
Dorset	Dorchester
County Durham	Durham
Essex	Chelmsford
Gloucestershire	Gloucester
Hampshire	Winchester, although the county is named after Southampton[2]
Herefordshire	Hereford
Hertfordshire	Hertford
Huntingdonshire	Huntingdon
Kent	Maidstone^5
Lancashire	Lancaster, superseded by Preston, where the County Hall was opened in 1882.^6
Leicestershire	Leicester
Lincolnshire	Lincoln
Middlesex	Brentford, Clerkenwell, the City of London or Westminster for different functions.^7
Norfolk	Norwich
Northamptonshire	Northampton
Northumberland	Alnwick^8
Nottinghamshire	Nottingham^13
Oxfordshire	Oxford
Rutland	Oakham
Shropshire	Shrewsbury
Somerset	Taunton,^9 although the county is named after Somerton
Staffordshire	Stafford
Suffolk	Ipswich
Surrey	(Unclear) ^10
Sussex	Chichester or Lewes^11
Warwickshire	Warwick
Westmorland	Appleby
Wiltshire	Trowbridge^12 although the county is named after Wilton
Worcestershire	Worcester
Yorkshire	York

1. Lent assizes were held at Reading, where the county gaol and house of correction were situated; summer assizes were held at Abingdon, which was the site of the county bridewell. Knights for the shire were nominated at Reading and elected at Abingdon.^[3]
2. Sir John Baldwin, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, caused the county assizes to be moved to Aylesbury. Knights for the shire continued to be elected at Buckingham. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica considered Buckingham to be the county town.^[3]
3. The County Assize Court sat at Bodmin, and the 1911 Britannica considered Bodmin to be the county town. Prior to 1835, it was Launceston.
4. Knights of the Shire were elected at Cockermouth
5. East Kent and West Kent had separate administrations until 1814, with East Kent sessions meeting at Canterbury, and West Kent at Maidstone, the over-all county town.
6. In 1787 the Lancashire Quarter Sessions decreed that in future the annual general sessions for transacting all business for the county at large should be held at Preston as it was "a central place in the county." The magistrates of Lonsdale Hundred refused to accept the decision, and would meet only at Lancaster. The matter was settled only when a local act of parliament (38 Geo.III c.58) established that the principal administrative business of the county could be transacted only at Preston.^[4]
7. Knights of the Shire were elected at Brentford; sessions presided over by Middlesex Justices of the Peace were held at Clerkenwell; trials for persons accused of the most serious crimes took place in the Old Bailey before the Aldermen of the City prior to the committing of the accused to Newgate Prison (which functioned as the county gaol for Middlesex) if found guilty; while the county council had its headquarters at the Middlesex Guildhall in Westminster from its establishment in 1889 until its abolition in 1965.^[5]
8. Alnwick's position as the county town seems to have been based largely on its castle being the seat of the Duke of Northumberland, although Knights of the Shire were elected at the town too.^[6] Assizes for the county however were held mainly or exclusively in Newcastle upon Tyne. Morpeth Castle was used as the prison for Northumberland, and the county gaol was built there in 1824.^[7][8]
9. Knights of the Shire were elected at Ilchester. Somerton temporarily became the county town in the late thirteenth century, when the shire courts and county gaol were moved from Ilchester.^[9]
10. Under an act of 1791, the justices of the peace of the county of Surrey were empowered to build a new sessions house and county gaol at Newington adjacent to the borough of Southwark and in the suburbs of London.^[10] By 1799 the buildings were completed and the county administration was based there until 1893.^[11] Newington, or more inaccurately Southwark were sometimes described as the county town thereafter, for instance in a school textbook of 1828.^[12] One historian claims that Guildford became the County Town under Henry II but there is no evidence that supports this or even if Guildford is or ever was the 'County Town'.
11. Horsham was occasionally described as the county town of Sussex due to the presence of the county gaol and the periodic holding of the county assizes and quarter sessions in the town. The last assizes were held there in 1830, while the gaol was closed in 1845.^[13]
12. Wiltshire County Council note that Wiltshire "never had a well recognised county town". Wilton had served as the seat of Quarter Sessions and for election of Knights of the Shire until 1832. Knights had been nominated at Devizes.^[14] An 1870s gazetteer describes "Salisbury and Devizes" as the "county towns".^[15] The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica names only Salisbury.
13. Nottingham was constituted a county corporate separate from Nottinghamshire in 1449. The area containing the Shire Hall however remained an exclave of Nottinghamshire.^[16]

Historic counties of Scotland

County	County town
Aberdeenshire	Aberdeen^1
Angus (or Forfarshire)	Forfar
Argyll	Lochgilphead (formerly Inveraray)²
Ayrshire	Ayr
Banffshire	Banff
Berwickshire	Duns (formerly Berwick-upon-Tweed, formerly Greenlaw)
Bute	Rothesay
Caithness	Wick
Clackmannanshire	Alloa (formerly Clackmannan)
Cromartyshire	Cromarty
Dumfriesshire	Dumfries
Dunbartonshire	Dumbarton
East Lothian (or Haddingtonshire)	Haddington
Fife	Cupar
Inverness-shire	Inverness
Kincardineshire	Stonehaven (formerly Kincardine – but not Kincardine-on-Forth)
Kinross-shire	Kinross
Kirkcudbrightshire	Kirkcudbright
Lanarkshire	Lanark³
Midlothian (or Edinburghshire)	Edinburgh^4
Morayshire (or Elginshire)	Elgin
Nairnshire	Nairn
Orkney	Kirkwall
Peeblesshire	Peebles
Perthshire	Perth
Renfrewshire	Renfrew^5
Ross-shire	Dingwall (also the county town of Ross and Cromarty)
Roxburghshire	Jedburgh (formerly Roxburgh)^6
Selkirkshire	Selkirk
Shetland	Lerwick
Stirlingshire	Stirling
Sutherland	Dornoch^7
West Lothian (or Linlithgowshire)	Linlithgow
Wigtownshire	Wigtown^8

1. In 1900 Aberdeen became a county of a city and thus outside Aberdeenshire.
2. Inveraray (the seat of the Duke of Argyll) was regarded as the county town until 1890, when the Argyll County Council was created with headquarters in Lochgilphead.
3. The headquarters of the Lanark County Council were established in 1890 in Glasgow. In 1893 Glasgow became a county of itself, and was therefore outside the council's area. The county council moved to Hamilton in 1964.^[17]
4. Edinburgh was a county of itself, and therefore lay outside the county of Midlothian.
5. The headquarters of Renfrew County Council were in Paisley from 1890.
6. Newtown St Boswells was the administrative headquarters of the county council established in 1890.
7. The headquarters of Sutherland County Council were at Golspie from 1890.
8. Stranraer became the administrative headquarters of the Wigtown county council in 1890, and was sometimes described as the "county town" thereafter.

Historic counties of Wales

This list shows county towns prior to the reforms of 1889.

County	County town
Anglesey	Beaumaris
Brecknockshire	Brecon
Caernarfonshire	Caernarfon
Cardiganshire	Cardigan
Carmarthenshire	Carmarthen
Denbighshire	Ruthin (formerly Denbigh)
Flintshire	Mold (formerly Flint)
Glamorgan	Cardiff
Merionethshire	Dolgellau
Montgomeryshire	Welshpool (formerly Montgomery)
Monmouthshire ^1	Monmouth ^1
Pembrokeshire	Haverfordwest (formerly Pembroke)
Radnorshire	Presteigne (formerly New Radnor)

1. Between 1536 and 1974, Monmouthshire was included by successive English and later, British, governments within England for some administrative and legal purposes. Always regarded culturally and ecclesiastically as part of Wales, particularly by the Welsh, since 1974 when new local government legislation was introduced it has unequivocally been within that country. The county is named after Monmouth, but the Sheriff's county court was held alternately in Monmouth and Newport.

Historic counties of Northern Ireland

County	County town
County Antrim	Antrim
County Armagh	Armagh
County Down	Downpatrick
County Fermanagh	Enniskillen
County Londonderry	Coleraine
County Tyrone	Omagh

Note – Despite the fact that Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland, it is not the county town of any county. Greater Belfast straddles two counties (Antrim and Down).

UK county towns post 19th-century reforms

With the creation of elected county councils in 1889 the location of administrative headquarters in some cases moved away from the traditional county town. Furthermore, in 1965 and 1974 there were major boundary changes in England and Wales and administrative counties were replaced with new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. The boundaries underwent further alterations between 1995 and 1998 to create unitary authorities and some of the ancient counties and county towns were restored. (Note: not all headquarters are or were called County Halls or Shire Halls e.g.: Cumbria County Council's HQ is called The Courts). Before 1974 many of the county halls were located in towns and cities that had the status of a county borough i.e.: a borough outside of the county council's jurisdiction.

England

County council	Date	Headquarters
Avon	1974 to 1996	Bristol
Bedfordshire	1889 to 2009	Bedford
Berkshire	1889 to 1998	Reading (county borough until 1974)
City and County of Bristol	1996 onwards	Bristol
Buckinghamshire	1889 onwards	Aylesbury
Cambridgeshire	1889 to 1965 1974 onwards	Cambridge
Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely	1965 to 1974	Cambridge
Cheshire	1889 to 2009	Chester
Cleveland	1974 to 1996	Middlesbrough
Cornwall	1889 onwards	Truro
Cumberland	1889 to 1974	Carlisle (county borough from 1914)
Cumbria	1974 onwards	Carlisle
Derbyshire	1889 onwards	Matlock (moved from Derby, county borough 1958)[18]
Devon	1889 onwards	Exeter (county borough until 1974). In 1963 the Devon County Buildings Area was transferred from the county borough of Exeter to the administrative county of Devon, of which it formed an exclave until 1974.[19]
Dorset	1889 onwards	Dorchester
Durham	1889 onwards	Durham
Essex	1889 onwards	Chelmsford
Gloucestershire	1889 onwards	Gloucester (county borough until 1974)
Greater London	1965 to 1986 2002 onwards	County Hall, Lambeth (Greater London Council) City Hall, Southwark (Greater London Authority)
Greater Manchester	1974 to 1986	Manchester
Hampshire	1889 onwards	Winchester
Herefordshire	1889 to 1974 1998 onwards	Hereford
Hereford and Worcester	1974 to 1998	Worcester
Hertfordshire	1889 onwards	Hertford
Humberside	1974 to 1996	Beverley
Huntingdonshire	1889 to 1965	Huntingdon
Huntingdon and Peterborough	1965 to 1974	Huntingdon
Isle of Ely	1889 to 1965	March
Isle of Wight	1890 onwards	Newport
Kent	1889 onwards	Maidstone
Lancashire	1889 onwards	Preston (county borough until 1974)
Leicestershire	1889 onwards	Leicester
Lincolnshire, Parts of Lindsey	1889 to 1974	Lincoln (county borough)
Lincolnshire, Parts of Holland	1889 to 1974	Boston
Lincolnshire, Parts of Kesteven	1889 to 1974	Sleaford
Lincolnshire	1974 onwards	Lincoln
London	1889 to 1965	Spring Gardens, Westminster until 1922, County Hall at Lambeth thereafter.
Merseyside	1974 to 1986	Liverpool
Middlesex	1889 to 1965	Middlesex Guildhall at Westminster in County of London
Norfolk	1889 onwards	Norwich (county borough until 1974)
Northamptonshire	1889 onwards	Northampton (county borough until 1974)
Northumberland	1889 onwards	Newcastle upon Tyne 1889 – 1981[20] Morpeth since 1981[21]
Nottinghamshire	1889 onwards	West Bridgford (moved from county borough of Nottingham in 1959)
Oxfordshire	1889 onwards	Oxford (county borough until 1974)
Soke of Peterborough	1889 to 1965	Peterborough, although geographically considered part of Northamptonshire
Rutland	1889 to 1974 1997 onwards	Oakham
Shropshire	1889 onwards	Shrewsbury
Somerset	1889 onwards	Taunton
Staffordshire	1889 onwards	Stafford
East Suffolk	1889 to 1974	Ipswich (county borough)
West Suffolk	1889 to 1974	Bury
Suffolk	1974 onwards	Ipswich
Surrey	1889 onwards	Inner London Sessions House, Newington, until County Hall, Kingston upon Thames opened in 1893 (Kingston has been in Greater London since 1965). [1] [22]
East Sussex	1889 onwards	Lewes
West Sussex	1889 onwards	Chichester (originally jointly with Horsham)[13]
Tyne and Wear	1974 to 1986	Newcastle upon Tyne
Warwickshire	1889 onwards	Warwick
West Midlands	1974 to 1986	Birmingham
Westmorland	1889 to 1974	Kendal
Wiltshire	1889 onwards	Trowbridge
Worcestershire	1889 to 1974 1998 onwards	Worcester (county borough until 1974)
Yorkshire, East Riding	1889 to 1974 1996 onwards	Beverley (later HQ of Humberside)
Yorkshire, North Riding	1889 to 1974	Northallerton
North Yorkshire	1974 onwards	Northallerton
South Yorkshire	1974 to 1986	Barnsley
Yorkshire, West Riding	1889 to 1974	Wakefield (county borough from 1915)
West Yorkshire	1974 to 1986	Wakefield

1. The current County Hall is located in Kingston upon Thames, but this town is no longer within the borders of Surrey. There is much debate over whether Kingston can still be the County Town or where it is if it isn't.

Wales

County council	Date	Headquarters
Anglesey	1889 to 1974	Beaumaris^1
Brecknockshire	1889 to 1974	Brecon
Caernarvonshire	1889 to 1974	Caernarfon
Carmarthenshire	1889 to 1974 1996 onwards	Carmarthen
Cardiganshire	1889 to 1974	Aberystwyth^2
Ceredigion	1996 onwards	Aberaeron
Clwyd	1974 to 1996	Mold
Denbighshire	1889 to 1974	Denbigh
Dyfed	1974 to 1996	Carmarthen
Flintshire	1889 to 1974	Mold
Glamorgan	1889 to 1974	Cardiff (county borough)
Gwent	1974 to 1996	Newport (1974–78), Cwmbran (1978–96)
Gwynedd	1974 onwards	Caernarfon
Mid Glamorgan	1974 to 1996	Cardiff (extraterritorial)
Merionethshire	1889 to 1974	Dolgellau
Montgomeryshire	1889 to 1974	Welshpool
Monmouthshire	1889 to 1974	Newport (county borough from 1891)
Radnorshire	1889 to 1974	Presteigne^3
Pembrokeshire	1889 to 1974 1996 onwards	Haverfordwest
Powys	1974 onwards	Llandrindod Wells
South Glamorgan	1974 to 1996	Cardiff
West Glamorgan	1974 to 1996	Swansea
Ynys Môn (Anglesey)	1996 onwards	Llangefni

1. Due to its better transport links and more central location, some administrative functions were moved to Llangefni.
2. Cardigan was often still referred to as 'the county town' due to the name link. However, assizes were held at Lampeter while Aberystwyth housed the administration of the county council. Aberystwyth was therefore the de facto county town.
3. Due to its better transport links and more central location, some administrative functions were moved to Llandrindod Wells.

Ireland

County	County town
County Carlow	Carlow
County Cavan	Cavan
County Clare	Ennis
County Cork	Cork
County Donegal	Lifford
County Dublin ^	Dublin
Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown	Dún Laoghaire *
Fingal	Swords *
County Galway	Galway
County Kerry	Tralee
County Kildare	Naas
County Kilkenny	Kilkenny
County Laois (formerly Queen's County)	Portlaoise (formerly known as Maryborough)
County Leitrim	Carrick-on-Shannon
County Limerick	Limerick
County Longford	Longford
County Louth	Dundalk
County Mayo	Castlebar
County Meath	Navan (previously Trim).
County Monaghan	Monaghan
County Offaly (formerly King's County)	Tullamore (since 1835), formerly Philipstown
County Roscommon	Roscommon
County Sligo	Sligo
South Dublin	Tallaght *
County Tipperary	Clonmel/Nenagh^1
County Waterford	Dungarvan [23]
County Westmeath	Mullingar
County Wexford	Wexford
County Wicklow	Wicklow

1. In 1898, the traditional county of Tipperary was divided into two ridings . Nenagh was the country town of North Tipperary and Clonmel was the county town of South Tipperary. Under the Local Government Reform Act 2014, the ridings were abolished and the county was reunited as "Tipperary".

Notes:

* indicates that the county was created after the reforms of the late 20th century

^ indicates that the county no longer has an administration purpose

Jamaica

Jamaica is divided into 14 parishes, which are grouped into three historic counties that have no administrative relevance.

County	County town	Ref
Cornwall	Savanna-la-Mar	[24]
Middlesex	Spanish Town	[24]
Surrey	Kingston	[24]

See also

• Administrative centre
• County seat

References

1. "Berkshire Quarter Sessions". Jackson's Oxford Journal. 4 July 1868.
2. "Hampshire Placenames and their Meanings". .hants.gov.uk. 17 February 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
3. Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of England, Vol. I, 1831
4. Webb, Sidney; Beatrice Webb (1906). English Local Government from the Revolution to the Municipal Corporations Act: The Parish and the County. London: Longmans Green and Co. pp. 432–433.
5. Justice in Eighteenth-Century Hackney (Process and Procedures), by Ruth Paley British History Online
6. "''Alnwick (St. Mary and St. Michael)'', ''A Topographical Dictionary of England'' (1848), pp. 39–44". British-history.ac.uk. 22 June 2003. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
7. "''Morpeth (St. Mary)'', ''A Topographical Dictionary of England'' (1848), pp. 345–350". British-history.ac.uk. 22 June 2003. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
8. "''Northiam – Nortoft'', ''A Topographical Dictionary of England'' (1848), pp. 433–439.". British-history.ac.uk. 22 June 2003. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
9. Somerton archaeological survey (Somerset County Council)
10. "Southwark Prisons". Survey of London: volume 25: St George's Fields (The parishes of St. George the Martyr Southwark and St. Mary Newington). British History Online. 1955. Retrieved 6 September 2010.
11. Edward Walford (1878). "The Old Kent Road". Old and New London: Volume 6. British History Online. Retrieved 6 September 2010.
12. Stewart, Alexander (1828). A compendium of modern geography: with remarks on the physical peculiarities, productions of the various countries; Questions for Examination at the end of each Section; and Descriptive Tables. Oliver & Boyde.
13. General history of Horsham – The town as county centre, Victoria County History of Sussex, Volume VI British History Online
14. "Why is Trowbridge the county town of Wiltshire?". Wiltshire County Council. 9 January 2003.
15. Wilson, John Marius (1872). "Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales: WILTS". A. Fullarton and Co.
16. Nicholson, A P (11 November 2007). "Shire (County) Hall, Nottingham". Nottinghamshire History. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
17. Notice in Edinburgh Gazette, 28 February 1964 that county council's address changed from Lanarkshire House, 191 Ingram Street, Glasgow C1 to County Buildings, Hamilton from 6 April 1964
18. Removal of County Headquarters, The Times, 28 January 1958
19. Frederic A. Youngs, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.1: Southern England, London, 1979, p.83
20. Northumberland County Hall was situated within an exclave of Northumberland (Moot Hall Precincts) within the county borough of Newcastle 1889 – 1974; the area became part of the county of Tyne and Wear in 1974 and was thus extraterritorial
21. County Hall moved to Morpeth on 21 April 1981 (see notice in London Gazette issue 48579, dated 10 April 1981)
22. When the question of where the council should meet arose in 1889/90 six towns were considered: Epsom, Guildford, Kingston, Redhill, Surbiton and Wimbledon.The Times, 27 March 1890
23. Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee Report 2013p. 124: The new local electoral area in the west of the county acknowledges the position and status of Dungarvan, which is currently the 'county' town of Waterford County Council and has a town council.
24. Higman, B W; Hudson (2009). Jamaican Place Names. B J (1st ed.). Mona, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-976-640-217-4.