Is this the smallest City?
The known story of St. Asaph (Llanelwy) begins in 576AD when St. Kentigern ( Mungo) departed from his original foundation on the shores of the Clyde and is said to have taken flight to Wales in fear for his safety. Following a long journey during which he founded a number of churches in Cumbria, Kentigern settled in St. Asaph where he founded a monastery on the banks of the river Elwy before returning to his native Scotland.
Asaph, son of King Sawyl Penuchel, fled to North Wales with his father and was sent as a disciple to his distant cousin, Kentigern, at Llanelwy (St. Asaph). When Kentigern was summoned back to Strathclyde, Asaph was appointed Bishop of Llanelwy by popular demand having been distinguished by performing a miracle in which he “carried burning coals in the skirts of his robe with not a sign of burning.” The coals were to warm Kentigern after he had been reciting the psalter naked in the icy waters of the river. In later years Asaph also founded a second monastery at Llanasa in Powys where he died on May lst AD 601.
In Wales the period 1350 – 1650 is well documented in the works of the bards to the nobility whose information is as accurate and dependable as any chronicler. The bards referred to St. Asaph as “Ty Asa”, a place of supreme importance akin to “Ty Dewi” (St. David’s) and “Ty Iago” (Santiago de Compostela). This surpassed the importance of towns named “Dinas” (modern Welsh translation of ‘City’) which originally referred to a fort.
The reasons why it has always been known as a city are because of the importance attached to the place over the past 2000 years. The Roman road passed through St. Asaph and the Antonine Itinerary of the second century AD placed the fort of Varis, by distances given, at St. Asaph. Very few Roman remains have been found to substantiate the location but, on current evidence, the fort was almost certainly at St. Asaph, providing the important lost link in the chain from Chester to Bangor.
https://www.stasaphcitycouncil.gov.uk/tourism/about-s-t-asaph/
Edit: St Davids in Pembrokeshire is.
Should have remembered as visited it only in the last few years.
More useless info if you didn’t know.
Not a lot happens when a town becomes a city as cities don’t get any tax breaks. They also don’t get any additional powers or new architectural monuments to signify their status.
Professor John Beckett at Nottingham University, who is an expert on the granting process, said that it’s entirely “a status thing”.
“There never has been any privileges. It’s always been a status thing, nothing more. There’s nothing to stop places declaring themselves a city – Dunfermline did it,” the professor told BBC News back in 2014.
He said the system of giving cities status “makes no sense” and it’s just “a bit of patronage to government.”
https://www.goodto.com/family/family-news/what-does-city-status-mean-625175
that cracked me up.
