County town

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A county town is the 'capital' of a county in Ireland or the United Kingdom. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county.

In the case of Yorkshire in England, there are three county towns, one for each Riding: Northallerton for the North Riding, Beverley for the East Riding, and Wakefield for the West Riding. Contrary to popular belief, there are no civil administrative offices for the county of Yorkshire as a whole (not even in York).

Note that in Eastern Canada and the United States of America, the term county seat is usually used for the same purpose. However, in the state of Louisiana the term parish seat is used instead.

Contents

List of county towns

England

Bedfordshire - Bedford
Berkshire - Reading formerly Abingdon
Buckinghamshire - Aylesbury formerly Buckingham
Cambridgeshire - Cambridge
Cheshire - Chester
Cornwall - Truro although the County Assizes Court sat at Bodmin.
Cumberland - Carlisle
Derbyshire - Derby, though County Hall is in Matlock
Devon - Exeter
Dorset - Dorchester
County Durham - Durham
Essex - Chelmsford
Gloucestershire - Gloucester
Hampshire - Winchester although the county is named after Southampton
Herefordshire - Hereford
Hertfordshire - Hertford
Huntingdonshire - Huntingdon
Kent - Maidstone
Lancashire - Lancaster, though County Hall is in Preston
Leicestershire - Leicester, though County Hall is in Glenfield, Blaby District
Lincolnshire - Lincoln
Middlesex - Brentford, Clerkenwell or Westminster for different functions
Norfolk - Norwich
Northamptonshire - Northampton
Northumberland - Newcastle-upon-Tyne though County Hall is in Morpeth
Nottinghamshire - Nottingham, though County Hall is in West Bridgford, Rushcliffe Borough
Oxfordshire - Oxford
Rutland - Oakham
Shropshire - Shrewsbury
Somerset - Taunton
Staffordshire - Stafford
Suffolk - Ipswich
Surrey - Guildford, though County Hall is in Kingston upon Thames which is not within the area currently administered by the county council.
Sussex - Chichester, (also Lewes)
Warwickshire - Warwick
Westmorland - Appleby, though the former county council sat in Kendal
Wiltshire - Wilton (near Salisbury), now Trowbridge
Worcestershire - Worcester
Yorkshire - traditionally York, but the ridings were administered as distinct counties from an early date
* North Riding (also North Yorkshire) - Northallerton
* East Riding - Beverley
* West Riding - Wakefield

Non-metropolitan counties of England

Scotland

Aberdeenshire - Aberdeen
Angus - Forfar
Argyll - Lochgilphead
Ayrshire - Ayr
Banffshire - Banff
Berwickshire - Duns (formerly Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Bute - Rothesay
Caithness - Wick
Clackmannanshire - Alloa (formerly Clackmannan)
Cromartyshire - Cromarty
Dumfriesshire - Dumfries
Dunbartonshire - Dumbarton
East Lothian - Haddington
Fife - Cupar
Inverness-shire - Inverness
Kincardineshire - Stonehaven (formerly Kincardine)
Kinross-shire - Kinross
Kirkcudbrightshire - Kirkcudbright
Lanarkshire - Lanark
Midlothian - Edinburgh
Morayshire - 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 - Linlithgow
Wigtownshire - Wigtown

Wales

Anglesey - Llangefni (formerly Beaumaris)
Brecknockshire - Brecon
Caernarvonshire - Caernarfon
Cardiganshire - Cardigan
Carmarthenshire - Carmarthen
Denbighshire - Ruthin (formerly Denbigh)
Flintshire - Mold (formerly Flint)
Glamorgan - Cardiff
Merionethshire - Dolgellau
Monmouthshire - Monmouth
Montgomeryshire - Montgomery
Pembrokeshire - Haverfordwest (formerly Pembroke)
Radnorshire - Presteigne (formerly New Radnor)

Northern Ireland

Historic counties of
County Antrim - Antrim
County Armagh - Armagh
County Down - Downpatrick
County Fermanagh - Enniskillen
County Londonderry - Derry
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).

Republic of Ireland

Traditional counties of the
County Carlow - Carlow
County Cavan - Cavan
County Clare - Ennis
County Cork - Cork
County Donegal - Lifford
County Dublin - Dublin
County Galway - Galway
County Kerry - Tralee
County Kildare - Naas
County Kilkenny - Kilkenny
County Laois - Portlaoise
County Leitrim - Carrick-on-Shannon
County Limerick - Limerick
County Longford - Longford
County Louth - Dundalk
County Mayo - Castlebar
County Meath - Trim (Navan - de facto)
County Monaghan - Monaghan
County Offaly - Tullamore
County Roscommon - Roscommon
County Sligo - Sligo
County Tipperary - Tipperary
County Waterford - Waterford
County Westmeath - Mullingar
County Wexford - Wexford
County Wicklow - Wicklow

Other counties of the Republic of Ireland

Former county towns

In 1965 and 1974 there were major administrative boundary changes in England and Wales and administrative counties were replaced with new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. The boundaries underwent more major alterations between 1995 and 1998 to create unitary authorities and some of the traditional counties and county towns were restored for administrative purposes.

Former administrative counties of England

Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely - Cambridge
East Suffolk - Ipswich
Holland - Boston
Huntingdon and Peterborough - Huntingdon
Isle of Ely - March
Kesteven - Sleaford
Lindsey - Lincoln
London - London
Soke of Peterborough - Peterborough
West Suffolk - Bury

Former non-metropolitan counties of England

Former counties of Wales

The eight administrative counties that existed in Wales between 1974 and 1996 were subsequently retained as lieutenancy areas. Since these areas have no administrative or judicial functions they no longer have county towns. The county towns in Glamorgan were seldom referred to as such even when the administrative counties existed.

Clwyd - Mold
Dyfed - Carmarthen
Gwent - Cwmbran
Gwynedd - Caernarfon
Mid Glamorgan - Cardiff (extraterritorial)
Powys - Llandrindod Wells
South Glamorgan - Cardiff
West Glamorgan - Swansea

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