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In Great Britain and Ireland, a county town is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county, and the place where public representatives are elected to parliament. Following the establishment of county councils in England in 1889, the headquarters of the new councils were usually established in the county town of each county; however, the concept of a county town pre-dates these councils.

The concept of a county town is ill-defined and unofficial. Some counties in Great Britain have their administrative bodies housed elsewhere. For example, Lancaster is the county town of Lancashire, but the county council is in Preston. Owing to the creation of unitary authorities, some county towns in Great Britain are administratively separate from the county. For example, Nottingham is separated from the rest of Nottinghamshire, and Brighton and Hove is separate from East Sussex. On a ceremonial level, both are in their own respective counties geographically.

Great Britain, historic

England

This list shows towns or cities which held county functions at various points in time.

County	Named after or of same root	Places that held county functions
Bedfordshire	Bedford
Berkshire	N/A	Reading or Abingdon
Buckinghamshire	Buckingham	Aylesbury
Cambridgeshire	Cambridge	Ely
Cheshire	Chester
Cornwall	N/A	Truro, Bodmin or Launceston
Cumberland	Carlisle (county later renamed)	Cockermouth or Penrith
Derbyshire	Derby
Devon	N/A	Exeter
Dorset	Dorchester	Poole
County Durham	Durham	Bishop Auckland or Sadberge
Essex	N/A	Chelmsford
Gloucestershire	Gloucester	Bristol
Hampshire	Southampton	Winchester
Herefordshire	Hereford
Hertfordshire	Hertford
Huntingdonshire	Huntingdon
Kent	Canterbury (name of same origin)	Maidstone
Lancashire	Lancaster	Preston
Leicestershire	Leicester
Lincolnshire	Lincoln
Middlesex	N/A	Brentford, Clerkenwell, London or Westminster
Norfolk	N/A	Norwich
Northamptonshire	Northampton
Northumberland	N/A	Alnwick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Morpeth or Berwick upon Tweed
Nottinghamshire	Nottingham
Oxfordshire	Oxford
Rutland	N/A	Oakham
Shropshire	Shrewsbury (spellings diverged)
Somerset	Somerton	Taunton, Ilchester, Bath or Wells
Staffordshire	Stafford	Lichfield
Suffolk	N/A	Ipswich
Surrey	N/A	Guildford, Newington or Southwark
Sussex	N/A	Lewes, Chichester or Horsham
Warwickshire	Warwick	Coventry
Westmorland	N/A	Appleby or Kendal
Wiltshire	Wilton	Trowbridge, Salisbury or Devizes
Worcestershire	Worcester
Yorkshire	York	Kingston upon Hull

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 of the shire were nominated at Reading and elected at Abingdon.
2. Sir John Baldwin, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, caused the county assizes to be moved to Aylesbury. Knights of the shire continued to be elected at Buckingham. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica considered Buckingham to be the county town.
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; the assizes and quarter sessions courts were occasionally held at Penrith.
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. 3. c. 58) established that the principal administrative business of the county could be transacted only at Preston.
7. Lindsey, Kesteven and Holland had separate administrations until 1974, with Holland sessions meeting at Boston, Kesteven at Sleaford, and Lindsey at Lincoln, the overall county town.
8. 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.
9. 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. 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.
10. Nottingham was constituted a county corporate separate from Nottinghamshire in 1449. The area containing the Shire Hall however remained an exclave of Nottinghamshire.
11. 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.
12. Under the Surrey Gaol Act 1791 (31 Geo. 3. c. 22) 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. By 1799 the buildings were completed and the county administration was based there until 1893. Newington or Southwark (the ecclesiastical centre) were sometimes described as the county town thereafter, for instance in a school textbook of 1828.
13. Chichester was traditionally described as the capital city of Sussex and Lewes its county town. 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.
14. Wiltshire County Council note that Wiltshire "never had a well recognised county town". An 1870s gazetteer describes "Salisbury and Devizes" as the "county towns". The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica names only Salisbury.
15. The county towns of the three "Ridings" are considered to be Beverley, Northallerton and Wakefield.

Scotland

County	County town
Aberdeenshire	Aberdeen
Angus (or Forfarshire)	Forfar
Argyll	Lochgilphead (formerly Inveraray)
Ayrshire	Ayr
Banffshire	Banff
Berwickshire	Duns, Scottish Borders (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)
Kinross-shire	Kinross
Kirkcudbrightshire	Kirkcudbright
Lanarkshire	Lanark
Midlothian (or Edinburghshire)	Edinburgh
Morayshire (or Elginshire)	Elgin
Nairnshire	Nairn
Orkney	Kirkwall
Peeblesshire	Peebles
Perthshire	Perth
Renfrewshire	Renfrew
Ross-shire	Dingwall (also the county town of Ross and Cromarty)
Roxburghshire	Jedburgh (formerly Roxburgh)
Selkirkshire	Selkirk
Shetland	Lerwick
Stirlingshire	Stirling
Sutherland	Dornoch
West Lothian (or Linlithgowshire)	Linlithgow
Wigtownshire	Wigtown

1. In 1900 Aberdeen became a county of a city and thus outside the remit of the county council.
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.
4. Edinburgh was a county of itself, and therefore lay outside the remit of the county council.
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.

Wales

Following the Norman invasion of Wales, the Cambro-Normans created the historic shire system (also known as ancient counties). Many of these counties were named for the centre of Norman power within the new county (Caernarfonshire named for Caernarfon, Monmouthshire named for Monmouth) others were named after the previous medieval Welsh kingdoms (Ceredigon becomes Cardigan, Morgannwg becomes Glamorgan). The 1535 Laws in Wales Act established the historic counties in English law, but in Wales they were later replaced with eight preserved counties for ceremonial purposes and the twenty two principal areas are used for administrative purposes. Neither of these subdivisions use official county towns, although their administrative headquarters and ceremonial centres are often located in the historic county town.

Name in English	Name in Welsh	County town in English	County town in Welsh
Anglesey	Ynys Môn	Llangefni (formerly Beaumaris?)	Llangefni Biwmares
Brecknockshire	Brycheiniog	Brecon	Aberhonddu
Caernarfonshire (formerly Carnarvonshire)	Sir Gaernarfon	Caernarfon	Caernarfon
Cardiganshire	Ceredigion	Cardigan	Aberteifi
Carmarthenshire	Sir Gaerfyrddin	Carmarthen	Caerfyrddin
Denbighshire	Sir Ddinbych	Ruthin (formerly Denbigh)	Rhuthun (formerly Dinbych)
Flintshire	Sir y Fflint	Mold (formerly Flint)	Yr Wyddgrug (formerly Y Fflint)
Glamorgan	Morgannwg	Cardiff	Caerdydd
Merioneth or Merionethshire	Meirionnydd or Sir Feirionnydd	Dolgellau	Dolgellau
Montgomeryshire	Sir Drefaldwyn	Welshpool (formerly Montgomery)	Y Trallwng (formerly Trefaldwyn)
Monmouthshire	Sir Fynwy	Monmouth	Trefynwy
Pembrokeshire	Sir Benfro	Haverfordwest (formerly Pembroke)	Hwlffordd (formerly Penfro)
Radnorshire	Sir Faesyfed	Presteigne (formerly New Radnor)	Llanandras (former Maesyfed)

Great Britain, post 19th-century reforms

With the creation of elected county councils in 1889, the 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 up until 2016 was called The Courts and has since moved to Cumbria House.) Before 1974, many of the county halls were in towns and cities that had the status of a county borough i.e. a borough outside the county council's jurisdiction.

England, from 1889

England, from 1965

Wales

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

Republic of Ireland

The follow lists the location of the administration of each of the 31 local authorities in the Republic of Ireland, with 26 of the traditional counties.

Northern Ireland

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.

Jamaica

Jamaica's three counties were established in 1758 to facilitate the holding of courts along the lines of the British county court system, with each county having a county town. The counties have no current administrative relevance.

See also

• Administrative centre
• County seat

References

1. ^ Lewis, Samuel (1831). "Berkshire". A Topographical Dictionary of England. Vol. I (1st ed.). p. 130.
2. "Berkshire Quarter Sessions". Jackson's Oxford Journal. 4 July 1868.
3. "Hampshire Placenames and their Meanings". Hampshire County Council. 17 February 2009. Archived from the original on 15 August 2013. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
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. Nicholson, A P (11 November 2007). "Shire (County) Hall, Nottingham". Nottinghamshire History. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
10. "Somerton archaeological survey (Somerset County Council)". Archived from the original on 28 March 2005. Retrieved 29 April 2007.
11. "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.
12. Edward Walford (1878). "The Old Kent Road". Old and New London: Volume 6. British History Online. Retrieved 6 September 2010.
13. 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.
14. "About Sussex". Sussex County Flag. 11 March 2015. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
15. A List of Some Towns of Commercial, Antiquarian, Historical or Sanitary Interest. A Reference Book of Modern Geography. Longmans, Green and Co. 1870.
16. Chichester, Lewes. Sussex; being an historical, topographical, and general description of every rape, hundred, river, town, borough, parish, village, hamlet, castle, monastery, and gentleman's seat in that county, etc. E. Taylor. 1834.
17. ^ General history of Horsham – The town as county centre, Victoria County History of Sussex, Volume VI British History Online
18. "Question: Why is Trowbridge the county town of Wiltshire?". Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
19. Wilson, John Marius (1872). "Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales: WILTS". A. Fullarton and Co.
20. 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
21. John Davies, A History of Wales, Penguin, 1993, ISBN 0-14-028475-3
22. Removal of County Headquarters, The Times, 28 January 1958
23. Frederic A. Youngs, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.1: Southern England, London, 1979, p.83
24. 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
25. County Hall moved to Morpeth on 21 April 1981 (see notice in London Gazette issue 48579, dated 10 April 1981)
26. "127 year chapter of history comes to an end as Surrey County Council moves home". Get Surrey. 23 December 2020. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
27. Higman, B. W.; Hudson, B. J. (2009). Jamaican Place Names. Mona, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-976-640-306-5. Archived from the original on 13 December 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.

• Capitals
• Towns in Ireland
• Towns in the United Kingdom
• County towns in the United Kingdom
• County towns in Ireland