Have Ely, Lichfield etc ever been cities? Also, you have changed the answer to London. It doesn't make sense its either city of for all... or for none.
A cathedral has never been an official criterion; they just need a royal charter from the monarch. But it was a good rule-of-thumb, as there were no cities without cathedrals until Birmingham in the late 19th century.
I am going to jump on the bandwagon, why is this UK, when all the cities are in England. What about Edinburgh? I lost a lot of time trying to put in cities from the other countries.
No it isn't arbitrary at all. The question and answers are good. The question requires the oldest cities in the UK. Edinburgh (for example) gained city status in the 17th century (1633 according to one source).
While Bristol has been a major port settlement since the Roman times, it didn't get official city status until the 16th Century. I assume this is the case with the other examples too.
"Archaeological excavations have shown that public buildings were abandoned, and is very doubtful whether Colchester survived as a settlement with any urban characteristics after the sixth century." Plus it's a town nowadays, not a city.
Only it is going to become one in a few weeks time.
Congratulations to Doncaster, Milton Keynes, Colchester, Wrexham, Dunfirmline, the other Bangor and the two that aren't in the UK (Douglas and Stanley).
I currently live in London and I used to live in Norwich. So far I visited Ely, Canterbury, Chichester, Winchester, Bath, Lincoln and York. Ely's cathedral is massive in comparison with the rest of the city, whilst Lincoln's not only is huge it sits on a hill in the middle of the old city! It really is a very imposing landmark! I heard Durham is a pretty place as well.
Salisbury became a city in the 13th Century when the cathedral was moved from its old site in Old Sarum. The cathedral itself was built in 1092, so even then it wouldn't have made the list by a few years.
Ah no, sorry, my mistake. I must have misread 1189 as 1089 for the most recent date on the list. Though it is still true that Salisbury at its current site did not become a city until the 1200s.
It may be of interest that the phrase ‘time immemorial’ has a specific legal meaning. My legal dictionary says (and various other sources agree) that the statute of Westminster 1275 fixed it at 1189 (although I’ve struggled to find a reference to it in the text of the statute, which is readily available online). The phrase is still quite frequently used in the courts (at least twice in the last year), though usually with the more generic meaning of ‘old beyond memory’, as it is used (perfectly correctly) in this quiz.
It's the date Richard the Lionheart came to the throne, I think? So it might be referred to as 1 Richard or similar. My dad (a lawyer) once had to deal with some land which had been in one family since the time of King John, which is pretty near time immemorial!
The reason no Scottish cities feature is because there were no places in Scotland with city status before any of the listed places.
Congratulations to Doncaster, Milton Keynes, Colchester, Wrexham, Dunfirmline, the other Bangor and the two that aren't in the UK (Douglas and Stanley).
Still no Guildford. Ha.
And Durham is gorgeous. You should definitely visit if you get the chance.
And yes. Some truly bizarre comments...