Editing County town (section)

===England===
This list shows towns or cities which held county functions at various points in time.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!width="170px"|County||Named after or of same root
! Places that held county functions<!--Assize, ecclesiastical, gaol, county corporates and so on-->
|-
| {{flag|Bedfordshire}}
|colspan=2| [[Bedford]]
|-
| {{flag|Berkshire}} ||N/A||[[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]] or [[Abingdon-on-Thames|Abingdon]]{{efn|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 Palace|bridewell]].<ref name="lewis1"/> Knights of the shire were nominated at Reading and elected at Abingdon.<ref name="lewis1">{{cite book |first=Samuel |last=Lewis |title=A Topographical Dictionary of England |volume=I |edition=1st |date=1831 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CMc_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA130 |page=130 |chapter=Berkshire }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Berkshire Quarter Sessions |newspaper=Jackson's Oxford Journal |date=4 July 1868 }}</ref>}}
|-
| {{flag|Buckinghamshire}} ||[[Buckingham]]|| [[Aylesbury]]{{efn|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.}}
|-
| {{flag|Cambridgeshire}} 
|[[Cambridge]]||[[Ely, Cambridgeshire|Ely]]
|-
| {{flag|Cheshire}}
|colspan=2|[[Chester]]
|-
| {{flag|Cornwall}} ||N/A|| [[Truro]], [[Bodmin]] or [[Launceston, Cornwall|Launceston]]{{efn|The county [[assize court]] sat at Bodmin, and the 1911 ''Britannica'' considered Bodmin to be the county town. Prior to 1835, it was [[Launceston, Cornwall|Launceston]].}}
|-
| {{flag|Cumberland}}||[[Carlisle]] (county later renamed)||[[Cockermouth]] or [[Penrith, Cumbria|Penrith]]{{efn|[[Knight of the shire|Knights of the shire]] were elected at Cockermouth; the assizes and quarter sessions courts were occasionally held at Penrith.}}
|-
| {{flag|Derbyshire}}
|colspan=2| [[Derby]] <!-- Please do not add Matlock here: it is detailed below under "1889 and after" -->
|-
| {{flag|Devon}} ||N/A||[[Exeter]]
|-
| {{flag|Dorset}}
|[[Dorchester, Dorset|Dorchester]]||[[Poole]]
|-
| {{flag|County Durham}} 
|[[Durham, England|Durham]]||[[Bishop Auckland]] or [[Sadberge]]
|-
| {{flag|Essex}} ||N/A||[[Chelmsford]]
|-
| {{flag|Gloucestershire}} 
|[[Gloucester]]||[[Bristol]]
|-
| {{flag|Hampshire}} || [[Southampton]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www3.hants.gov.uk/index/your-area/localpages/names.htm |title=Hampshire Placenames and their Meanings |website=Hampshire County Council |date=17 February 2009 |access-date=31 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130815152904/http://www3.hants.gov.uk/index/your-area/localpages/names.htm |archive-date=15 August 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>||[[Winchester]]
|-
| {{flag|Herefordshire}}
|colspan=2| [[Hereford]]
|-
| {{flag|Hertfordshire}} 
|colspan=2| [[Hertford]]
|-
| {{flag|Huntingdonshire}} 
|colspan=2| [[Huntingdon]]
|-
| {{flag|Kent}} || [[Canterbury]] (name of same origin) ||[[Maidstone]]{{efn|[[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.}}
|-
| {{flag|Lancashire}} || [[Lancaster, Lancashire|Lancaster]]||[[Preston, Lancashire|Preston]]{{efn|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)|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.<ref>{{cite book |title=English Local Government from the Revolution to the Municipal Corporations Act: The Parish and the County |url=https://archive.org/details/englishlocalgove02webbuoft |last=Webb |first=Sidney |author-link=Sidney Webb |author2=Beatrice Webb |year=1906 |publisher=[[Longman|Longmans Green and Co.]] |location=London |pages=[https://archive.org/details/englishlocalgove02webbuoft/page/432 432]–433 }}</ref>}}
|-
| {{flag|Leicestershire}}
|colspan=2| [[Leicester]]
|-
| {{flag|Lincolnshire}} 
|colspan=2|[[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]]{{efn|[[Parts of Lindsey|Lindsey]], [[Kesteven]] and [[Parts of Holland|Holland]] had separate administrations until 1974, with Holland sessions meeting at [[Boston, Lincolnshire|Boston]], Kesteven at [[Sleaford]], and Lindsey at Lincoln, the overall county town.}}
|-
| {{flag|Middlesex}} || N/A||[[Brentford]], [[Clerkenwell]], [[City of London|London]] or [[City of Westminster|Westminster]]{{efn|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.<ref name=BHOnline>''Justice in Eighteenth-Century Hackney (Process and Procedures)'', by Ruth Paley [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=38816#s5 British History Online]</ref>}}
|-
| {{flag|Norfolk}} ||N/A||[[Norwich]]
|-
| {{flag|Northamptonshire}} 
|colspan=2|[[Northampton]]
|-
| {{flag|Northumberland}} || N/A||[[Alnwick]], [[Newcastle upon Tyne]], [[Morpeth, Northumberland|Morpeth]] or [[Berwick upon Tweed]]{{efn|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50752#s20 |title=''Alnwick (St. Mary and St. Michael)'', ''A Topographical Dictionary of England'' (1848), pp. 39–44|publisher=British-history.ac.uk |date=22 June 2003 |access-date=29 January 2012}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51160#s6 |title=''Morpeth (St. Mary)'', ''A Topographical Dictionary of England'' (1848), pp. 345–350|publisher=British-history.ac.uk |date=22 June 2003 |access-date=29 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51184#s11 |title=''Northiam – Nortoft'', ''A Topographical Dictionary of England'' (1848), pp. 433–439.|publisher=British-history.ac.uk |date=22 June 2003 |access-date=29 January 2012}}</ref>}}
|-
| {{flag|Nottinghamshire}}
|colspan=2| [[Nottingham]]{{efn|Nottingham was constituted a [[county corporate]] separate from Nottinghamshire in 1449. The area containing the Shire Hall however remained an [[exclave]] of Nottinghamshire.<ref name="notts">{{cite web|url=http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/articles/shirehall.htm|title=Shire (County) Hall, Nottingham|last=Nicholson|first=A P|date=11 November 2007|work=Nottinghamshire History|access-date=2 June 2011}}</ref>}}
|-
| {{flag|Oxfordshire}} 
|colspan=2| [[Oxford]]
|-
| {{flag|Rutland}} || N/A||[[Oakham]]
|-
| {{flag|Shropshire}} 
|colspan=2| [[Shrewsbury]] (spellings diverged)
|-
| {{flag|Somerset}} || [[Somerton, Somerset|Somerton]] || [[Taunton, Somerset|Taunton]], [[Ilchester]], [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] or [[Wells, Somerset|Wells]]{{efn|Knights of the shire were elected at [[Ilchester]]. [[Somerton, Somerset|Somerton]] temporarily became the county town in the late thirteenth century, when the shire courts and county gaol were moved from Ilchester.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.somerset.gov.uk/somerset/cultureheritage/heritage/projects/eus/somerton/ |title=Somerton archaeological survey (Somerset County Council) |access-date=29 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050328000643/http://www.somerset.gov.uk/somerset/cultureheritage/heritage/projects/eus/somerton/ |archive-date=28 March 2005 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}
|-
| {{flag|Staffordshire}}
| [[Stafford]] || [[Lichfield]]
|-
| {{flag|Suffolk}} ||N/A|| [[Ipswich]]
|-
| {{flag|Surrey}} ||N/A|| [[Guildford]], [[Newington, London|Newington]] or [[Southwark]]{{efn|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, London|Newington]] adjacent to the borough of [[Southwark]] and in the suburbs of London.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=65440#s8 |title=Southwark Prisons |year=1955 |work=Survey of London: volume 25: St George's Fields (The parishes of St. George the Martyr Southwark and St. Mary Newington) |publisher=British History Online |access-date=6 September 2010}}</ref> By 1799 the buildings were completed and the county administration was based there until 1893.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45279 |title=The Old Kent Road |author=Edward Walford |year=1878 |work=Old and New London: Volume 6 |publisher=British History Online |access-date=6 September 2010}}</ref> Newington or Southwark (the ecclesiastical centre) were sometimes described as the county town thereafter, for instance in a school textbook of 1828.<ref name=stewart>{{cite book|title=A compendium of modern geography: with remarks on the physical peculiarities, productions of the various countries; Questions for Examination at the end of each Section; and Descriptive Tables |author=Stewart, Alexander|publisher=Oliver & Boyde|year=1828 |url=https://archive.org/details/acompendiummode00stewgoog}}</ref>}}
|-
| {{flag|Sussex}} ||N/A|| [[Lewes]], [[Chichester]] or [[Horsham]]{{efn|[[Chichester]] was traditionally described as the capital city of Sussex and Lewes its county town.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sussexflag.wordpress.com/aboutsussex/|title=About Sussex|date=11 March 2015 |publisher=Sussex County Flag |access-date=2 February 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mnQDAAAAQAAJ&q=chichester|title=A List of Some Towns of Commercial, Antiquarian, Historical or Sanitary Interest|series=A Reference Book of Modern Geography|year=1870|publisher=Longmans, Green and Co.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qlBgAAAAcAAJ&q=chichester|title=Chichester, Lewes|series=Sussex; being an historical, topographical, and general description of every rape, hundred, river, town, borough, parish, village, hamlet, castle, monastery, and gentleman's seat in that county, etc|year=1834|publisher=E. Taylor}}</ref> [[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.<ref name=VCHSussex>''General history of Horsham – The town as county centre'', Victoria County History of Sussex, Volume VI [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=18350&strquery=county%20town#s2 British History Online]</ref>}}
|-
| {{flag|Warwickshire}}
|[[Warwick]]||[[Coventry]]
|-
| {{flag|Westmorland}} ||N/A|| [[Appleby-in-Westmorland|Appleby]] or [[Kendal]]
|-
| {{flag|Wiltshire}} ||[[Wilton, Wiltshire|Wilton]]|| [[Trowbridge]], [[Salisbury]] or [[Devizes]]{{efn|Wiltshire County Council note that Wiltshire "never had a well recognised county town".<ref>{{Cite web |website=[[Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre]] |title=Question: Why is Trowbridge the county town of Wiltshire? |url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Question/Details/51 |publisher=Wiltshire Council |access-date=2 May 2023}}</ref> An 1870s gazetteer describes "[[Salisbury]] and [[Devizes]]" as the "county towns".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/descriptions/entry_page.jsp?text_id=1008130&word=NULL|title=Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales: WILTS|year=1872|author=Wilson, John Marius|publisher=A. Fullarton and Co}}</ref> The 1911 ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' names only Salisbury.}}
|-
| {{flag|Worcestershire}} 
| colspan="2" |[[Worcester, England|Worcester]]
|-
| {{flag|Yorkshire}}
|[[York]]|| [[Kingston upon Hull]]{{efn|The county towns of the three "Ridings" are considered to be [[Beverley]], [[Northallerton]] and [[Wakefield]].}}
|}
{{notelist}}