Cathedrals

[Denisdiamond]

How many cities in U.K. do not have a cathedral. I was under the impression that a city was only a city if it had a cathedral. Many thanks.

[Count_Emmup]

Having a cathedral and being a city are totally unrelated.

The monarch grants a Royal Charter changing a borough into a city; the church administration is divided into Archbishops' archdioceses, then sub-divided into Bishops' dioceses, a cathedral is simply a Bishop or Archbishop's 'base', where he, his office staff and general administration work as well as worship.

Derby has had a cathedral for ages but was created a city comparatively recently, Shrewsbury is the county seat of Shropshire but is only a town.

[Denisdiamond]

Thanks for that, Count.

[Fibonacci]

a list of officially designated UK cities can be found at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_status_in_th e_United_Kingdom

[aristotle]

Actually Count_Emm is wrong. Any town in the UK with a cathedral is a city e.g. Ely in Cambridgeshire and St Davids in Wales are two of the smallest. Derby has long been a city because of its cathedral but it was granted unitary status in local government terms quite recently which is probably what C_E is thinking of. The monarch has also granted city status to many large towns over the centuries.

[kempie]

aristotle - your answer is patently incorrect when you consider that St. David's was granted city status in 1994, despite having a cathedral for more than 800 years.

Blackburn Cathedral is situated in the town of Blackburn. Likewise for Brecon, Bury St. Edmunds, Chelmsford, Guildford, etc.

[burnhal]

There seems to be no hard and defined definition of a city- some are cities because they always were and no-one knows why, some because of cathedrals and some due to Royal CHarter- have a read of http://www.ukcities.co.uk/status/

[THECORBYLOON]

aristotle, Derby has been a city only since 1977 so what are you on about?

[pug306]

Sorry bit different to what you want to know, but, I live near Rochester in Kent, and I understand that it was a city, with a cathedral, until it was mistakenly left out of the Doomsday book. Thus, it is no longer recognised as a city. I thought all cities had cathedrals, but I am not 'all that' on historical and geographical info, but thought it may be of interest.

[kempie]

pug306 - your timing is a little bit out!

Rochester was a city for many centuries until an administrative error during the process of local government reorganisation in 1998 stripped it of its city status and was not noticed by Medway Council until 2002.

[aristotle]

To clarify, and the Wikipedia article also makes this clear, there are two types of city - those which Wikipedia refers to as cities since time immemorial because they either have or had a cathedral. St David's, Ely and many others are on the list. Others are significant towns either in population or importance which have been granted city status by the monarch. The last time this happened was in 2000 when Brighton & Hove among others became a city.
St David's was certainly a recognised city long before 1994 as I recall the arguments over whether my home town of Ely or St David's was the smallest city when I was a child.

[kempie]

Check the list again aristotle. St. David's is not listed under "Time Immemorial".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_status_in_th e_United_Kingdom#List_of_officially-designated _cities

[Count_Emmup]

Aristotle is quite simply wrong.

[THECORBYLOON]

Milton Keynes calls itsel a city but that doesn't mean it is.

[atoach]

I'm with Count-Emmup.
All Saints' Church, Derby was made a cathedral in 1927 (according to the cathedral's own website); Derby was made a city in 1977, to mark QE2's Silver Jubilee (according to the City Council website); and the city became a unitary authority in 1997 (according to lots of places, including Derby City Liberal Democrats).

[Denisdiamond]

Thanks to everyone involved in this one. Much appreciated and a wee bit wiser!