How cities are ‘made’ (and when did ‘time immemorial’ begin)?
Paul Millward. President of the National Association of Civic Officers
How are cities made? Is it because they have a cathedral? Is it because they have been made a city by the Sovereign? Is it a ‘size’ thing? Can a city status be removed? What benefits does city status confer on a place? When did ‘time immemorial’ begin and why is this relevant?
City status is conferred by the Sovereign under the Royal prerogative, rather than by statute. The status does not apply automatically on the basis of any particular criteria, although until the 16th century, a town was usually recognised as a city by the Crown if it had a diocesan cathedral within its limits. Normally, city status is conferred by Royal Charter, but there are some cities which predate the historical monarchy and have been regarded cities since ‘time immemorial’ and have city status by Ancient Prescriptive Right.
Cities since ‘Time immemorial’.
‘Time immemorial’ is legally defined as 3 September 1189 as set by the Statute of Westminster 1275. There are twenty towns in England and Wales that were recognised as cities by "ancient prescriptive usage"; none of these communities had been formally declared a city, but they had all used the title since before 1189.
These cities are: Bangor; Bath; Canterbury; Carlisle; Chichester; Coventry; Durham; Ely; Exeter; Hereford; Lichfield; Lincoln; City of London; Norwich; Rochester (status lost in 1998 – there’s a story for another day!); Salisbury; Wells; Winchester; Worcester, and York.
All these cities were in one of the 22 pre-Reformations dioceses, (Welsh cities being a complicated picture with St David’s being a city until 1888, losing that title as a result of local government reorganisation, but gaining it again in 1994 by Letters Patent). Do cities have to have a cathedral?
Until the sixteenth century, a town was recognised as a city by the Crown if it had a diocesan cathedral within its limits. This association between having a cathedral and being called a city was strengthened in the early 1540s when Henry VIII founded dioceses (and therefore cathedrals) in six English towns and also granted them all city status by issuing Letters Patent. These developments in the 1540s established two significant precedents: the right of the monarch to grant city status, and an explicit link between city status and cathedral towns.
Population was not a factor at this time, so some cities today are very small, because they were unaffected by population growth during the industrial revolution — notably Wells. After the sixteenth century, no new dioceses (and no new cities) were created until the nineteenth century, but the practice was revived with the creation of the diocese of Ripon in 1836. A string of new dioceses and cities followed. This process was changed in 1888 to allow Birmingham and other large settlements that did not have cathedrals to become cities (Birmingham's parish church later became a cathedral). The link between cathedrals and cities was broken.
In order to emphasise the point about cathedrals not being a factor in becoming a city after the 16th century, one can note that towns that became seats of bishoprics in the twentieth century, such as Chelmsford, Guildford, and Blackburn, were not automatically granted city status.
In 1927 a Royal Commission on Local Government was examining local authority areas and functions in England and Wales. The question arose as to which towns were entitled to be called cities, and the chairman, the Earl of Onslow, wrote to the Home Office to seek clarification. The Home Office replied with a memorandum which read:
"The title of a city which is borne by certain boroughs is a purely titular distinction. It has no connexion with the status of the borough in respect of local government and confers no powers or privileges. At the present time and for several centuries past the title has been obtained only by an express grant from the Sovereign effected by letters patent; but a certain number of cities possess the title by very ancient prescriptive right. There is no necessary connexion between the title of a city and the seat of a bishopric, and the creation of a new see neither constitutes the town concerned a city nor gives it any claim to the grant of letters patent creating it a city.
If a town wishes to obtain the title of a city the proper method of procedure is to address a petition to the King through the Home Office. It is the duty of the Home Secretary to submit such petitions to his Majesty and to advise his Majesty to the reply to be returned. It is a well-established principle that the grant of the title is only recommended in the case of towns of the first rank in population, size and importance, and having a distinctive character and identity of their own. At the present day, therefore, it is only rarely and in exceptional circumstances that the title is given."
Does size matter?
As we have seen above, the link between cathedrals and cities was a strong one until the 19th century, but not so cities and population. Daniel Defoe in the 18th century described Manchester as ‘the greatest mere village in England’, as it didn’t have a city charter or corporation, but a population of at least 50,000 when other cities were much smaller. The biggest 20 towns by population in 1881 included 17 towns which did not have city charters, and mostly these were in the heartlands of the industrial revolution. The fact that much smaller places had city status and the much bigger towns didn’t, led to the questioning of how cities should be ‘made’. Civic leaders in the Victorian era were much concerned with status and civic honours for their town and city status was seen as a goal.
As we’ve seen above the granting of city status to Ripon restarted the process of creating new cities in 1836. When new sees were created in the 19th century they were not necessarily in the largest towns, but in towns which had an appropriate high-status church which could be consecrated as a cathedral. This helps to explain why the first new bishopric in Yorkshire was in Ripon, not in Leeds or Sheffield.
A number of industrial towns were granted city status in the second half of the 19th century but in order to prevent a large number of applicants, the Home Office set a population bar of 300,000. When the pace of urban growth slowed and few, if any, towns were able to cross the bar, the rules were changed (to 250,000 and eventually to 200,000). As a result, the imbalance between urban size and city status was gradually corrected, and by 1951, all of the top 15 towns by population were cities, and 16 of the top 20 enjoyed the status. But it wasn’t just population size that led to the creation of the new cities – the link with Royal events such as the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria led to the creation of Nottingham, Bradford and Hull becoming cities.
In 1911 an application for city status by Portsmouth was refused. Explaining the Home Secretary's reason for not recommending the King to approve the petition, the Lord Advocate stated: "..during the reign of his late Majesty it was found necessary, in order to maintain the value of the distinction, to lay down a rule as to the minimum population which should ordinarily, in connexion with other considerations, be regarded as qualifying a borough for that higher status."
We’ve seen above that in 1927, the Home Office advised that applications for city status should be “towns of the first rank in population, size and importance, and having a distinctive character and identity of their own”. So, by the 19th century, as the link between cathedral status and city status ended, size did matter.
The ‘competitions’ to become a city
More recently, city status is granted by the Sovereign (by personal Command of the Queen/King) and conferred by Letters Patent, on the advice of HMG’s Ministers, following a competition for city status. These competitions are usually held on the occasions of important Royal anniversaries or events or on the Millennium. For the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, instead of inviting or receiving applications from towns, the Home Office identified ‘suitable’ candidates and decided to give city status to Derby – it was by then the largest non-city as a result of the local government boundary reforms introduced in 1974.
By 1992 (The Queen’s 40th anniversary) a full-scale competition (for English towns only) was held with 20 towns applying, with, instead of merely petition the Crown, presentations being made as to the town’s case. Sunderland won, having narrowly having missed to out to Derby in 1977.
A competition was also introduced in 1992 for a Lord Mayoralty. Just as the myth that a city must have a cathedral, so there is a similar mythical view that a city automatically has a lord mayor. In fact, the two awards have been made together just once, for Cardiff in 1905. A competition meant that existing cities, many of them very small, could compete for a title. Nine towns applied and Chester was successful.
Although not a Royal occasion, a competition across the whole of the UK was held to mark the Millennium. Twenty-seven English, four Scottish, six Welsh and two Northern Irish towns applied, and much was spent on promoting their cases. Initially aimed at creating one new city, Brighton and Hove, Wolverhampton and Inverness were created cities. For the Golden Jubilee competition in 2002, 25 English towns applied, 6 Welsh, 4 Scottish and 6 from Northern Ireland. To avoid any accusation that the judgment was made purely on the grounds of size, Preston was promoted, while to ensure political balance, Newport, Stirling and both Lisburn (a Unionist stronghold) and Newry (a nationalist stronghold) were promoted. Exeter won the Lord Mayoralty competition.
For the Diamond Jubilee in 2012, competitions for city status and a Lord Mayoralty /Lord Provostship were held. This time, guidelines as to submission were given. Any local authority, whether district, borough, parish, town, community or unitary council, from any area of the United Kingdom, ‘which considers that its area deserved to be granted the rare honour of city status’ was invited to apply. A standard size and format was laid down for entries ‘to help local authorities minimise the expense of entering the competitions and to provide the Government with a fair basis for comparison and assessment of the entries received’. Candidates needed to show that they were ‘vibrant, welcoming communities with interesting histories and distinct identities’. Bids had to focus on why the place deserved city status with particular reference to its age, distinct identity, history, traditions, famous residents and any associations with royalty and other particularly distinctive features. Applicants had to provide a profile of the place, including statistics, 50 photographs of permanent features, 2 maps showing the town centre and the main tourist and leisure and entertainment sites, green spaces accessible to the public and transport routes. Brief details of local governance were to be supplied, together with ‘an account of the range, variety and appeal of community and “interest” groups based in the area’.
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport, who now were responsible for these competitions rather than the Home Office, noted that, ‘neither city status nor Lord Mayoralty has ever been a right to be claimed by places fulfilling a list of criteria, as this might devalue the honour’. Instead, the government published guidelines ‘on the format and contents of entries’ describing ‘information which the Government has found useful in reaching a decision, but they do not set out formal criteria’. The same range of information was required also for the Lord Mayoralty competition, although those cities created at the Millennium and Golden Jubilee were barred from entry. The decisions came with the disclaimer ‘As a Royal prerogative matter relating to honours the process will remain confidential, as will Ministers’ conclusions. The Queen’s decision, made on Ministerial advice, is final and no reasons will be given for applicants’ success or failure in the competitions’. Chelmsford, (England), St Asaph (Wales) Perth (Scotland) became cities and the Lord Mayoralty went to Armagh, Northern Ireland.
The Platinum jubilee in 2022 saw more bids for city status, this time including from overseas territories and crown dependencies for the first time. However, the Prime Minister announced in Parliament that the Queen, in advance of the closing date of the competition, would accord city status to one of the applicants, Southend-on-Sea, in memory of Sir David Amess, the town's MP who was murdered and had long pressed for the status. An announcement on 20 May 2022 declared that eight new cities were to be created from the shortlist, with at least one in every UK country as well as in overseas locations. In England, Milton Keynes, Colchester and Doncaster were promoted to city status, with Dunfermline (Scotland), Bangor (Northern Ireland) and Wrexham (Wales). These awards increased the number of official mainland cities to 76, with 55 in England, eight in Scotland, seven in Wales, six in Northern Ireland.
Outside of the UK the following Crown Dependencies have received City status: Douglas (Isle of Man), Hamilton (Bermuda), City of Gibraltar (Gibraltar), Stanley (Falkland Islands) and Jamestown (Saint Helena).
Can city status be removed?
In 2000, the question of the possible removal of city status was raised in the House of Commons with the reply from the Minister for Constitutional Affairs stating:
“Apart from those cities that enjoy city status by ancient prescriptive usage, city status is an honour conferred by the Sovereign by Letters Patent. As it is a matter for the Royal Prerogative, the Sovereign can strip a city of its status, but this has never been done. Any city acknowledged by ancient prescriptive usage would be expected to have had that status confirmed by local government legislation during the last 100–150 years. It is possible, however, under local government reorganisation legislation, for a new local authority to lose the city status previously enjoyed by part of that authority.”
The last sentence of that answer is a warning to us all, especially in the time of local government re-organisation. All cities where a local government unit that holds that status is abolished have to be re-issued with letters patent reconfirming city status following local government reorganisation where that holder has been abolished. This process was followed by a number of cities since 1974, with York and Hereford's status being confirmed twice, in 1974 and again in the 1990s. Failure to do so led to the loss of city status at Rochester in 1998 (there was no council remaining for Rochester or any Charter Trustees appointed) and also previously in St David's and Armagh, although the latter two have regained city status since losing it. These three had been cities since time immemorial.
City status is, in reality, a town hall honour.
There is actually nothing to prevent towns from calling themselves cities, Elgin, in Scotland, calls itself a city; Dunfermline and Milton Keynes both called themselves cities before actually becoming so in 2022; St Asaph called itself a cathedral city until it gained promotion. In informal usage, "city" can be used for large towns or conurbations that are not formally cities. The best-known example of this is London, which contains two cities (the City of London, and the City of Westminster) but is not itself a city. This is not an academic article and I haven’t quoted my sources. If you really want to read a good academic article on how cities are/were made, read ‘Inventing and reinventing the modern city: the 2012 city status competition in the United Kingdom’ by John Beckett, Professor of History, University of Nottingham – a man who kindly (and gently) corrected a talk I once gave about the granting of City Status to Nottingham…
Official list of UK cities and Crown Dependencies:
List of cities
(* indicates the city has also been awarded a Lord Mayoralty or Lord Provostship)
United Kingdom England: Bath; Birmingham*; Bradford*; Brighton & Hove; Bristol*; Cambridge; Canterbury*; Carlisle; Chelmsford; Chester*; Chichester, Colchester; Coventry*; Derby; Doncaster; Durham; Ely; Exeter*; Gloucester; Hereford; Kingston-upon-Hull*; Lancaster; Leeds*; Leicester*; Lichfield; Lincoln; Liverpool*; City of London*; Manchester*; Milton Keynes; Newcastle-upon-Tyne*; Norwich*; Nottingham*; Oxford*; Peterborough; Plymouth*; Portsmouth*; Preston; Ripon; Salford; Salisbury; Sheffield*; Southampton*; Southend-on-Sea; St Albans; Stoke on Trent*; Sunderland; Truro; Wakefield; Wells; Westminster*; Winchester; Wolverhampton; Worcester; York*
Northern Ireland: Armagh*; Bangor; Belfast*; Lisburn; Londonderry; Newry
Scotland: Aberdeen*; Dundee*; Dunfermline; Edinburgh*; Glasgow*; Inverness; Perth; Stirling
Wales: Bangor; Cardiff*; Newport; St Asaph; St Davids; Swansea*; Wrexham
Crown Dependencies
Isle of Man
• Douglas
Overseas Territories
Bermuda
• Hamilton
Gibraltar
• City of Gibraltar
Falkland Islands
• Stanley
Saint Helena
• Jamestown