County town

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 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. However the boundaries were altered again in 1996 to create Unitary Authorities and some of the pre-1974 counties and county towns were restored.

English County Towns include: (list not complete)

• Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
• Bedford, Bedfordshire
• Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
• Carlisle, Cumbria
• Chelmsford, Essex
• Chester, Cheshire
• Derby, Derbyshire
• Dorchester, Dorset
• Durham, Durham
• Exeter, England, Devon
• Gloucester, Gloucestershire
• Guildford, Surrey
• Hereford, Herefordshire
• Hertford[?], Hertfordshire
• Ipswich, Suffolk
• Lancaster, Lancashire
• Leicester, Leicestershire
• Lewes, East Sussex
• Lincoln, Lincolnshire
• Maidstone, Kent
• Morpeth[?], Northumbria
• Northallerton[?], North Yorkshire
• Northampton, Northamptonshire
• Norwich, Norfolk
• Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
• Oxford, Oxfordshire
• Shrewsbury, Shropshire
• Stafford, Staffordshire
• Swindon, Wiltshire
• Taunton, Somerset
• Truro, Cornwall
• Warwick, Warwickshire
• Winchester, Hampshire
• Worcester, Worcestershire
• Worthing[?], West Sussex