Great Britain, historic
England
This list shows towns or cities which held county functions at various points in time.
- ^ 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.[1] 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.
- ^ The county assize court sat at Bodmin, and the 1911 Britannica considered Bodmin to be the county town. Prior to 1835, it was Launceston.
- ^ Knights of the shire were elected at Cockermouth; the assizes and quarter sessions courts were occasionally held at Penrith.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.[4]
- ^ 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]
- ^ 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]
- ^ Nottingham was constituted a county corporate separate from Nottinghamshire in 1449. The area containing the Shire Hall however remained an exclave of Nottinghamshire.[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.[10]
- ^ 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.[11] By 1799 the buildings were completed and the county administration was based there until 1893.[12] 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.[14][15][16] 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.[17]
- ^ Wiltshire County Council note that Wiltshire "never had a well recognised county town".[18] An 1870s gazetteer describes "Salisbury and Devizes" as the "county towns".[19] The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica names only Salisbury.
Scotland
- ^ In 1900 Aberdeen became a county of a city and thus outside the remit of the county council.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.[20]
- ^ Edinburgh was a county of itself, and therefore lay outside the remit of the county council.
- ^ The headquarters of Renfrew County Council were in Paisley from 1890.
- ^ Newtown St Boswells was the administrative headquarters of the county council established in 1890.
- ^ The headquarters of Sutherland County Council were at Golspie from 1890.
- ^ 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.[21]
| Name in English | Name in Welsh | County town in English | County town in Welsh |
|---|---|---|---|
 Anglesey |
Ynys Mon | Beaumaris | Biwmares |
 Brecknockshire |
Brycheiniog | Brecon | Aberhonddu |
 Caernarfonshire |
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) |
