County town
From Wikinfo
A county town is the location of the administrative headquarters 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 Canada and the United States of America, the term county seat is usually used for the same purpose.
In 1974 the administrative boundaries of the United Kingdom were altered and in some areas (particularly Scotland and Wales) the old counties were replaced by new administrative districts. The boundaries were altered again in 1996 to create Unitary Authorities and some of the pre-1974 counties and county towns were restored.
Contents |
List of County Towns
Traditional Counties of England
- Bedfordshire - Bedford
- Berkshire - Abingdon, then Reading (now has no County Council)
- Buckinghamshire - Aylesbury
- Cambridgeshire - Cambridge
- Cheshire - Chester
- Cornwall - Bodmin, now Truro
- Cumberland - Carlisle (now part of Cumbria)
- Derbyshire - Derby, now Matlock
- Devon - Exeter
- Dorset - Dorchester
- County Durham - Durham
- Essex - Chelmsford
- Gloucestershire - Gloucester
- Hampshire - Southampton, now Winchester
- Herefordshire - Hereford (now a unitary)
- Hertfordshire - Hertford
- Huntingdonshire - Huntingdon (now no County Council)
- Kent - Maidstone
- Lancashire - Lancaster, now Preston
- Leicestershire - Leicester, now Glenfield
- Lincolnshire - Lincoln
- Middlesex - Brentford, Clerkenwell or Westminster for different functions (now part of Greater London)
- Norfolk - Norwich
- Northamptonshire - Northampton
- Northumberland - Alnwick, then Newcastle upon Tyne, now Morpeth
- Nottinghamshire - Nottingham (now extraterritorial)
- Oxfordshire - Oxford
- Rutland - Oakham (now a unitary)
- Shropshire - Shrewsbury
- Somerset - Somerton, now Taunton
- Staffordshire - Stafford
- Suffolk - Ipswich
- Surrey - Guildford, but the County offices are currently extraterritorial at Kingston upon Thames
- Sussex - Chichester, (also Lewes)
- now East Sussex - Lewes
- and West Sussex - Chichester
- Warwickshire - Warwick
- Westmorland - Appleby (now part of Cumbria)
- Wiltshire - Trowbridge (formerly Salisbury?)
- Worcestershire - Worcester
- Yorkshire
- North Riding (also North Yorkshire) - Northallerton
- East Riding - Beverley
- West Riding - Wakefield
Non-metropolitan counties of England created in 1974
- Avon - Bristol (now unitaries)
- Cumbria - Carlisle
- Isle of Wight - Newport
- Cleveland - Middlesbrough (now unitaries)
- Humberside - Beverley (now unitaries)
Traditional counties of Scotland
- Aberdeenshire - Aberdeen
- Angus - Forfar
- Argyllshire - Lochgilphead
- Ayrshire - Ayr
- Banffshire - Banff
- Berwickshire - Duns (formerly Berwick-upon-Tweed)
- Buteshire - 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
- Mid Lothian - 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
Traditional counties of Wales
- Anglesey - Llangefni (formerly Beaumaris)
- Brecknockshire - Brecon
- Caernarfonshire - Caernarfon
- Ceredigion, formerly Cardiganshire - Cardigan
- Carmarthenshire - Carmarthen
- Denbighshire - Denbigh (briefly Ruthin)
- Flintshire - Flint
- Glamorgan - Cardiff
- Merionethshire - Dolgellau
- Monmouthshire - Monmouth
- Montgomeryshire - Montgomery
- Pembrokeshire - Haverfordwest (formerly Pembroke)
- Radnorshire - Presteigne (formerly New Radnor)
Preserved counties of Wales
- Clwyd - Mold
- Dyfed - Carmarthen
- Gwent - Cwmbran
- Gwynedd - Caernarfon
- Mid Glamorgan - Cardiff (extraterritorial)
- Powys - Llandrindod Wells
- South Glamorgan - Cardiff
- West Glamorgan - Swansea
Counties of the Republic of Ireland
- 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 - Portlaois
- County Leitrim - Carrick-on-Shannon
- County Limerick - Limerick
- County Longford - Longford
- County Louth - Dundalk
- County Mayo - Castlebar
- County Meath - Trim
- County Monaghan - Monaghan
- County Offaly - Tullamore
- County Roscommon - Roscommon
- County Sligo - Sligo
- County Tipperary - Clonmel
- County Waterford - Waterford
- County Westmeath - Mullingar
- County Wexford - Wexford
- County Wicklow - Wicklow
Counties of Northern Ireland
- County Antrim - Belfast
- County Armagh - Armagh
- County Derry - Derry
- County Down - Downpatrick
- County Fermanagh - Enniskillen
- County Tyrone - Omagh
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "County_town" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_town, used under the GNU Free Documentation License

