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A county town is a county's current or former administrative centre in the United Kingdom, Ireland, or Jamaica. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county. The concept of a county town eventually became detached from its original meaning of where the county administration or county hall is based. In fact, many county towns are no longer part of "their" administrative county. For example, Nottingham is administered by a unitary authority entirely separate from the rest of Nottinghamshire. Many county towns are classified as cities, but all are referred to as county towns regardless of whether city status is held or not.
Note – Despite the fact that Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland, it is not the county town of any county. Greater Belfast straddles two counties (Antrim and Down).
With the creation of elected county councils in 1889 the location of administrative headquarters in some cases moved away from the traditional county town. Furthermore, in 1965 and 1974 there were major boundary changes in England and Wales and administrative counties were replaced with new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. The boundaries underwent further alterations between 1995 and 1998 to create unitary authorities and some of the ancient counties and county towns were restored. (Note: not all headquarters are or were called County Halls or Shire Halls e.g.: Cumbria County Council's HQ is called The Courts). Before 1974 many of the county halls were located in towns and cities that had the status of a county borough i.e.: a borough outside of the county council's jurisdiction.
Notes:
* indicates that the county was created after the reforms of the late 20th century
^ indicates that the county no longer has an administration purpose
Canada, Australia, Welsh language, Wales, United Kingdom
Cornwall, Plymouth, Somerset, North Devon, Exeter
Medway, East Sussex, Maidstone, Greater London, Dartford
Nottinghamshire, Labour Party (UK), University of Nottingham, Derby, Zimbabwe
Letterkenny, Gweedore, All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, Irish language, Raphoe
Tralee, Munster, County Limerick, County Cork, Blasket Islands
County Westmeath, Navan, Counties of Ireland, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil
Shropshire, England, River Severn, Charles Darwin, Bridgnorth