0 the most important town or city in a county, especially the one where the local government is based:
Nonetheless, informal relationships in a county town were not entirely without structure.
Being a county town seems to have been more important than having a cathedral (although the two often coincided) and certainly more important than having a garrison.
I could give illustrations where it is another realm altogether, the county town being much nearer to the next county.
Take the case of a ratepayer living far away from the county town.
It takes us a day and a-half to go to the county town to do our business and come back.
People in the villages want to be run to the county town in the morning and brought quickly back at night.
It is really much more convenient that these registers should be kept locally than that they should be kept at the county town.
I know of one county town where there are two organisations dealing with exactly the same matters in the same street.
