The population of London could be counted in hundreds of thousands, but no other English town remotely approached the capital in size until the big northern industrial cities such as Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield began to grow in the late 18th century. The biggest towns in England circa 1700 were Bristol and Norwich, with populations of a little more than 20,000 each. Most county towns or provincial centres had populations of 10,000 or less, local market towns had about 5000 inhabitants or less. In the 16th and early 17th century, there were many small country towns of only two or three thousand inhabitants. If a stranger visited one of these towns, he would be noticed.
Some English towns have cathedrals and are therefore entitled to call themselves cities.
In the time of Henry VIII, these were Bristol, Canterbury, Carlisle, Chester, Chichester, Coventry, Durham, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Lichfield, Lincoln, London, Norwich, Oxford, Peterborough, Rochester, Salisbury, Wells, Winchester, Worcester, and York. York should be referred to as York Minster, not York Cathedral, and Lincoln is also a minster, although usually called a cathedral. The fact that these places are called cities does not mean that they had large populations and flourishing industry. Some, such as Ely, Lichfield, and Rochester, have never been more than modest provincial towns. Other cathedrals have been created in the 19th and 20th centuries, and those towns are now also entitled to call themselves cities.