message for bfr sent to me by someone

[Mark44]

From: Andrew S

 

Hi Mark,

 

One for you to tell BFR -a city contains a Cathedral and Chelmsford contains the Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin, St Peter and St Cedd!

 

Ergo - it is a City!

 

Best wishes,

 

Andrew

[BFR]

And I would refer Mr Strathdee to the Department for Constitutional Affairs website which says that there are 66 cities in the UK - and Chelmsford is not one of them!

 

http://www.dca.gov.uk/constitution/city/citygj.htm#part2

 

As for the cathedral argument - maybe back in the day but certainly not anymore

 

Quote:

Must a city have a cathedral?

No.

[Mark44]

im confused but yea im with you bfr

[Paul Stephens]

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines 'city' as 'a large town' or 'any town in the UK which has a cathedral'. This is the common meaning of the word and in most democratic countries the size of the town is the deciding factor over whether it has city status. Large towns automatically become cities. This is perfectly logical and sensible, however this is not the case in the UK.

 

Despite having a parliamentary democracy, many decisions within the UK are not open to the public but instead controlled by the monarchy (a sort of passive hereditory dictatorship). City status in the UK is not granted automatically just because a town becomes very large, or because of a cathedral. A town must be granted city status by the British monarch.

 

Because of this peculiarity there is a discrepancy between the common meaning of the word 'city' and the 'official' meaning.

 

Source UK Cities

[Charles Windsor]

Quote:

Paul Stephens said:

Despite having a parliamentary democracy, many decisions within the UK are not open to the public but instead controlled by the monarchy (a sort of passive hereditory dictatorship). City status in the UK is not granted automatically just because a town becomes very large, or because of a cathedral. A town must be granted city status by the British monarch.

My family are not dictators.

And I declare Chelmsford city status.

Roll on the 8th.

[malxx]

Fine debate as always, boys and girl(s). <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> [Hi, Charlie!]

A City in Britain needs the royal Warrant or assent, and tho our beloved C.W. was kind enough to hand it over on an informal basis this evening, I'm not sure he's technically qualified just yet....

 

Ignore dictionaries (apart maybe from Oxford); in the U.S. a city is defined as a place where the compiler is not related to his postman.....

 

In Britain, however, Bath, for example, is definitely a City, but has an Abbey - yet there's a splinter of a village in Somerset called Downside which also has an Abbey.

York has a Minster, and is a fine City, (and the home of our beloved Tony K). Yet Wimborne Minster is equally well-endowed on the ecclesiastical front, but it's merely a humble town {with the best Folk Festival in Britain...}.

 

Happy times, guys.

 

No malice intended to Chelmsford (where my first proper girlfriend was from...), but Chelmsford is NOT a city. They were up for the warrant a while ago, but I think it went to Sunderland or Brighton.... or Wells....?

 

[Tune is "She'll be coming round the mountain..."]

 

"There's only ONE City in the R.P.L...

There's only ONE City in the R.P.L...." <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/achso.gif" alt="" />

[Don Juan DeMarcus]

Surely due to Chelmsford being from THAT county its is neither a city or a town, and after studying the dictionary definition and checking on the DCA website it should actually be described as a '$hit hole' hope this helps.

[Burnham Lad]

I should have known better than to challenge the superior knowledge of BFR who is right, as one might expect from a scholar, gentleman and Website Moderator (who are always right by definition)!

 

Next time, Andrew, do a bit more homework! However, the mistaken view I expressed was largely true until pretty late into the last century and there is an interesting article which explains this at:

 

http://www.answers.com/topic/city-status-in-the-united-kingdom

 

Also the Oxford Dictionary I referred to for the City definition was quite clear, but I have now found a later edition which amended this and says that "Most" conurbations called cities have a Cathedral.

 

And one has to ask the question, given that, who is going to tell Chelmsford which has a Cathedral and has applied for City status, they can't call their team Chelmsford City and make them change it? <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/angel.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[brighton_rebel]

Brighton became a City a few years back, and what a transformation that made to all us residents...