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

Table of contents

1 List of County Towns 1.1 Traditional Counties of England 1.2 Non-metropolitan counties of England created in 1974

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)