There are, within England and Wales, 18 towns or cities which have, at various times, been granted charters apparently making them “counties” in their own right. These areas are collectively known as the “counties corporate”. Such charters were actually concerned with the judicial arrangements of these towns and cities rather than their geographical status. The “county corporate” status has generally been seen as an extra dignity added to a town and has not usually been taken to mean that the town has literally been removed from its host County. For example, the General Register Office, within its Census Reports, never considered them to be so and always dealt with them as being part of the County in which they geographically lay. Numerous legal judgments found that the “counties corporate” were not “Counties in the ordinary sense of the term”. This convention is followed by ABC. This is done without prejudice to the special status which many feel these places deserve.