Indeed the folders are sorted alphabetically and I am happy with that; the problem is the position of the mailboxes in the list. Before the crash, I had my IMAP mailboxes at the top of the list and a local store of folders beneath that; now the order is reversed and I need to scroll down to access the mailboxes that are used most frequently -- not a big deal for a small number of items in a list but in my case there are large numbers of folders and many IMAP accounts which over time means a lot of unnecessary wrist action -- ordering for me is quite important.

After a crash and subsequent recovery procedures, my list of mailboxes and folders has been re-arranged.  I tried dragging  mailboxes to a different positions in the list without effect.  Is there a way to do this in 4.5.2 perhaps in the ordering of entries in HIERARCH.PM and STATE.PMJ or other files?

Within a folder or at the top level of the mailbox the folders are arranged alphabetically.

The only sure way I know to alter the order is to prefix names with numbers (or similar) to get them into the position I want.