County town








A county town in Great Britain or Ireland is usually, but not always, the location of administrative or judicial functions within the county. The concept of a county town is ill-defined and unofficial. Following the establishment of county councils in 1889, the administrative headquarters of the new authorities were usually located in the county town of each county. However, this was not always the case and the idea of a "county town" pre-dates the establishment of these councils. For example, Lancaster is the county town of Lancashire but the county council is located at Preston.


The county town was often where the county members of Parliament were elected or where certain judicial functions were carried out, leading it to becoming established as the most important town in the county.


Some county towns are no longer situated within the 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.[citation needed] The term was also used historically in Jamaica.




Contents






  • 1 UK county towns, pre-19th-century reforms


    • 1.1 Historic counties of England


    • 1.2 Historic counties of Scotland


    • 1.3 Historic counties of Wales


    • 1.4 Historic counties of Northern Ireland




  • 2 UK county towns post 19th-century reforms


    • 2.1 England


    • 2.2 Wales




  • 3 Ireland


  • 4 Jamaica


  • 5 See also


  • 6 References





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
Reading,[a] previously also Abingdon[2]
Buckinghamshire
Aylesbury,[b] although the county is named after Buckingham
Cambridgeshire
Cambridge
Cheshire
Chester
Cornwall
Truro[c]
Cumberland
Carlisle[d]
Derbyshire
Derby
Devon
Exeter
Dorset
Dorchester
County Durham
Durham
Essex
Chelmsford
Gloucestershire
Gloucester
Hampshire
Winchester, although the county is named after Southampton[3]
Herefordshire
Hereford
Hertfordshire
Hertford
Huntingdonshire
Huntingdon
Kent
Maidstone[e]
Lancashire
Lancaster[f]
Leicestershire
Leicester
Lincolnshire
Lincoln
Middlesex
Brentford, Clerkenwell, the City of London or Westminster for different functions.[g]
Norfolk
Norwich
Northamptonshire
Northampton
Northumberland
Alnwick[h]
Nottinghamshire
Nottingham[i]
Oxfordshire
Oxford
Rutland
Oakham
Shropshire
Shrewsbury
Somerset
Taunton,[j] although the county is named after Somerton
Staffordshire
Stafford
Suffolk
Ipswich
Surrey
Guildford[k][clarification needed]
Sussex
Chichester or Lewes[l]
Warwickshire
Warwick
Westmorland
Appleby
Wiltshire
Trowbridge although the county is named after Wilton [m]
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 of the shire were nominated at Reading and elected at Abingdon.[1]


  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.[1]


  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 in the middle ages.


  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. ^ Nottingham was constituted a county corporate separate from Nottinghamshire in 1449. The area containing the Shire Hall however remained an exclave of Nottinghamshire.[9]


  10. ^ 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.[10]


  11. ^ 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.[11] By 1799 the buildings were completed and the county administration was based there until 1893.[12] Newington, or more inaccurately Southwark were sometimes described as the county town thereafter, for instance in a school textbook of 1828.[13]


  12. ^ 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]


  13. ^ 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.[15] An 1870s gazetteer describes "Salisbury and Devizes" as the "county towns".[16] The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica names only Salisbury.




Historic counties of Scotland















































































































































County County town
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeen[a]

Angus (or Forfarshire)

Forfar
Argyll
Lochgilphead (formerly Inveraray)[b]
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)
Kinross-shire
Kinross
Kirkcudbrightshire
Kirkcudbright
Lanarkshire
Lanark[c]

Midlothian (or Edinburghshire)

Edinburgh[d]

Morayshire (or Elginshire)

Elgin
Nairnshire
Nairn
Orkney
Kirkwall
Peeblesshire
Peebles
Perthshire
Perth
Renfrewshire
Renfrew[e]
Ross-shire
Dingwall (also the county town of Ross and Cromarty)
Roxburghshire
Jedburgh (formerly Roxburgh)[f]
Selkirkshire
Selkirk
Shetland
Lerwick
Stirlingshire
Stirling
Sutherland
Dornoch<[g]

West Lothian (or Linlithgowshire)

Linlithgow
Wigtownshire
Wigtown[h]






















  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[a]

Monmouth[a]
Pembrokeshire
Haverfordwest (formerly Pembroke)
Radnorshire
Presteigne (formerly New Radnor)





  1. ^ ab 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 up until 2016 was called The Courts and have since moved to Cumbria House.) 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

County Hall Newcastle upon Tyne 1889 – 1981[20]
County Hall 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 St Edmunds

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).[22]

East Sussex
1889 onwards

Lewes

West Sussex
1889 onwards

Chichester (originally jointly with Horsham)[14]

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


Wales



























































































































County council Date Headquarters
Anglesey 1889 to 1974
Beaumaris1
Brecknockshire 1889 to 1974
Brecon
Caernarvonshire 1889 to 1974
Caernarfon
Carmarthenshire 1889 to 1974
1996 onwards

Carmarthen
Cardiganshire 1889 to 1974
Aberystwyth2
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
Presteigne3
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


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




























































































































































































County Councils County town Notes
County Carlow Carlow County Council Carlow
County Cavan Cavan County Council Cavan
County Clare Clare County Council Ennis
County Cork Cork County Council Cork city
Cork County Council Cork city
County Donegal Donegal County Council Lifford
County Dublin Dublin City Council Dublin city

Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council

Dún Laoghaire
Until 1994, formed Dublin County Council, with its administrative offices in Dublin City
Fingal County Council
Swords
South Dublin County Council
Tallaght
County Galway Galway City Council Galway city
Galway County Council Galway city
County Kerry Kerry County Council Tralee
County Kildare Kildare County Council Naas
County Kilkenny Kilkenny County Council Kilkenny
County Laois Laois County Council Port Laoise Called Maryborough till 1929
County Leitrim Leitrim County Council Carrick-on-Shannon
County Limerick Limerick City and County Council Limerick
County Longford Longford County Council Longford
County Louth Louth County Council Dundalk
County Mayo Mayo County Council Castlebar
County Meath Meath County Council Navan previously Trim was the administrative town
County Monaghan Monaghan County Council Monaghan
County Offaly Offaly County Council Tullamore Prior to 1883, the county town was Daingean, then known as Philipstown
County Roscommon Roscommon County Council Roscommon
County Sligo Sligo County Council Sligo
County Tipperary Tipperary County Council
Clonmel/Nenagh
Until the Local Government Reform Act 2014, these were respectively the administrative towns of South Tipperary County Council and North Tipperary County Council
County Waterford Waterford City and County Council Waterford
County Westmeath Westmeath County Council Mullingar
County Wexford Wexford County Council Wexford
County Wicklow Wicklow County Council Wicklow


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.[23] The counties have no current administrative relevance.



















County County town

Cornwall

Savanna-la-Mar

Middlesex

Spanish Town

Surrey

Kingston


See also



  • Administrative centre

  • County seat



References





  1. ^ ab Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of England, Vol. I, 1831


  2. ^ "Berkshire Quarter Sessions". Jackson's Oxford Journal. 4 July 1868..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}


  3. ^ "Hampshire Placenames and their Meanings". .hants.gov.uk. 17 February 2009. 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)


  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. ^ ab General history of Horsham – The town as county centre, Victoria County History of Sussex, Volume VI British History Online


  15. ^ "Why is Trowbridge the county town of Wiltshire?". Wiltshire County Council. 9 January 2003.


  16. ^ Wilson, John Marius (1872). "Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales: WILTS". A. Fullarton and Co.


  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. ^ 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.









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