Esther lost in outskirts of county town (8)

I believe the answer is:

chertsey

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'town' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?

I cannot understand how the rest of the clue works.

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(Another definition for chertsey that I've seen is " Surrey town on Thames; these cry (anagram)".)

I've seen this clue in The Times and The Sunday Times.

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