St Davids
St Davids or St David's (, ,  "David's house”) is a city and a community (named St Davids and the Cathedral Close) with a cathedral in Pembrokeshire, Wales, lying on the River Alun. It is the resting place of Saint David, Wales's patron saint, and named after him. St Davids is the United Kingdom's smallest city in population (just over 1,600 in 2011) and urban area (the smallest city by local authority boundary area being the City of London). St Davids was given city status in the 12th century. This does not derive automatically from criteria , but in England and Wales it was traditionally given to cathedral towns under practices laid down in the early 1540s, when Henry VIII founded dioceses. City status was withdrawn in 1886, but restored in 1994 at the request of Queen Elizabeth II. St Davids is also known archaically by the name Meneva or Menevia (Welsh: "Mynyw"). History. Early history. While the local landscape is home to a number of Palaeolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age structures, archaeological evidence suggests that Pembrokeshire was not heavily occupied by the Romans, with only one or two names in Ptolemy's Geographia being linked  to the county. Following the Roman withdrawal from Britain, the area that would become St Davids was known in Ecclesiastical Latin as "Meneva" or "Menevia" and in Welsh as "Mynyw". Some medieval texts state that the area was home to a cell, church or monastery founded by Saint Patrick around the year 470AD, years before the birth of Saint David. Age of David. David was born around 500AD to Saint Non, who is believed to have given birth at the place where the Chapel of St Non now stands. He was baptised by Saint Elvis at Porthclais, and was brought  up by his mother at Llanon. He may also have been educated at the "Ty Gwyn", Whitesands by Saint Paulinus. David is thought to have founded an earlier community somewhere to the west of modern St Davids, before establishing a new church and monastery at a place then known as "Glyn Rhosyn" on the banks of the Afon Alun (where the current Cathedral now stands). During his life, David gained great fame throughout the Celtic church and was a key figure in the fight against the Pelagian Heresy. At the Synod of Brefi in 545AD, Saint Dubricius (who held the  Bishoprics of both Caerleon and Llandaff) is said to have freely given David the ancient Metropolitan See of Caerleon. It is also implied that in transferring the See from Caerleon, David also transferred an important royal court. The Welsh Triads name "Mynyw" as the seat of "one of the three Tribal Thrones of the island of Britain" (the other courts being Celliwig and Pen Rhionydd). The entry states that the court had Arthur as Chief Prince, "Dewi" as the Chief Bishop, and "Maelgwn Gwynedd" as Chief Elder. The settlement would became known as "Tyddewi" meaning "House of Dewi (David's  name in Welsh)" and it is still known by that name in modern Welsh. This story of how the ancient see was transferred to St Davids gained popularity in the Norman era by writers such as Geoffrey of Monmouth, who described David as "The pious archbishop of Legions, at the city of Menevia." Later history. St Davids was already famous as the centre of pilgrimage for the cult of Saint David by the ninth century, but it would also be plundered by the Vikings and was eventually burnt and destroyed in 1087. The present cathedral was built by the Normans , and its earliest sections date back to the twelfth century. However, it is thought that the new cathedral may have followed the layout of medieval structures and continued to host its many ancient relics, including the remains of St David. At its height, the city was visited by many pilgrims, including noblemen and kings such as William the Conqueror in 1077, Henry II in 1171, and Edward I and Queen Eleanor in 1284. Pope Calixtus II decreed that two pilgrimages to St Davids were equivalent to one to Rome (""Roma semel quantum dat bis Menevia tantum""). This allowed a vast  income to be raised from visiting pilgrims in the Middle Ages. Pilgrimages later fell out of favour due to practices such as the selling of indulgences, and the income from them faded away. By the 19th century, the city of St Davids was isolated and neglected, as described in the "Penny Cyclopaedia": At present its appearance is that of a poor village, the houses, excepting those of the clergy, being in a ruinous state. The locality is lonely, and the neighbouring district wild and unimproved; but it is still an interesting place as the seat of a large episcopal see , with a fine cathedral and the remains of other magnificent religious edifices. Since then, better transport and the advent of tourism have helped the city prosper again. Next to the cathedral, the 13th-century Bishop's Palace is a ruin maintained by Cadw and open to visitors. The city was once a marcher borough, within which lay the hundred of Dewisland. In 1603, the antiquarian George Owen described it as one of five Pembrokeshire boroughs overseen by a portreeve. Geography. The community council area sits at the southern end of the Irish Sea on a peninsula, between Cardigan Bay, St  George's Channel and St Brides Bay. It covers not just the mainland area, but also several islands off the coast, of which Ramsey Island is the largest and the only one inhabited, separated by the Ramsey Sound. The most westerly mainland point of Wales is at Pen Dal-aderyn. To the north lie Whitesands Bay and St Davids Head, which are locally notable landscape features. The community includes the former chapelries at St Justinian and Gwrhyd. The mainland contains much area used for farming, but contains very small scattered residences and several campsites. St Davids Lifeboat Station, at St  Justinian, has saved an estimated 360 people since the first lifeboat was located there in 1869; four lifeboatmen have died while saving others. The Irish Sea includes a large number of offshore rocks and islands and is notorious for strong tides. The entire coastline around St Davids forms part of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Saint Non's Well overlooks the Pembrokeshire Coast Path and St Brides Bay. St David's Airfield, although named after the city when opened in 1943, is in the neighbouring community of Solva. The highest point is Carn Llidi at . There are several isolated hamlets  in the community: Several islands and islets lie within a few miles from the coast. These are administratively within St Davids: The islands below are part of the Bishop And Clerks grouping, and were included in 1987: City status. In the 16th century a town was recognised as a city by the English Crown if it had a diocesan cathedral within its limits along with a royal charter or borough privileges, but this link was abolished in 1888, and amid prior borough reorganisation (see Governance below), St Davids lost the right to call itself a city. In 1991 St Davids  town council proposed that a case for city status, which the residents had long considered it to have anyway, should be promoted in connection with the 40th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and in 1992 the Home Office agreed to refer the matter to Buckingham Palace. In 1994, at the Queen's request, St Davids was again granted city status along with the Northern Irish town of Armagh, "in recognition of their important Christian heritage and their status as cities in the last century". The letters patent conferring city status were formally presented by the Queen in  a ceremony at St Davids Cathedral on 1 June 1995. The award of city status is typically granted to a local authority, whose administrative area is then considered to be the formal borders of the city. By this definition, the whole community area of St Davids and the Cathedral Close, including the settlement of St Davids, its surrounding rural area, and islands off the coast, is considered to be within the city. St Davids contains the lowest population of all the cities of the UK, and has the smallest urban area, at . However, with the formal city area defined by  its community council extent of , this sizeable expanse including offshore islands mean that several UK cities are smaller in area, with the City of London being the smallest at . In Wales, St Davids is the third smallest after the community areas of St Asaph with and Bangor with . Governance. St Davids became a borough in 1115, when Bernard, the first Norman Bishop of St Davids, was granted a charter by Henry I designating the lands of Dewisland as a Marcher Lordship. This gave Bernard wide-reaching powers over this realm, with his headquarters remaining initially at St Davids. However, subsequent  Marcher Bishops came to base the administration of Dewisland, including the exchequer, chancery and court, in Llawhaden by the 13th century. King Henry VIII then passed the Laws in Wales Acts, which in 1535 and 1542 abolished the status of Marcher Lordships. Dewisland was merged with the adjacent Lordship of Kemes and the surrounding Lordship of Pembroke to form Pembrokeshire, of which Dewisland became a hundred. In 1835 a report from government commissioners investigating municipal corporations determined: THE city and parish of St. David's is situate in the manor of Dewisland. The Bishop of St. David's is Lord  of the Manor; and it appears that an officer, called the mayor, is annually appointed by the steward, whose duty is to collect certain chief rents to the bishop. The mayor assumes to take certain small tolls by virtue of his office: his right to do this is disputed, but the tolls being very trifling, are frequently paid. The mayor is merely an officer of the Manor Court. A belief exists amongst some of the inhabitants that the city was once a corporation; but there are no burgesses, charter, or other vestige of municipal institutions. The belief has probably arisen  from the lord's officer being called a mayor. Under this summary, the borough was considered within the report as "municipal in name only", and non-parliamentary. Any remaining legalities pertaining to the city were removed in 1886, when these were abolished by the Municipal Corporations Act 1883, with its corporation deemed to be long extinct, and the very small population (1,025 residents in 1835) not helping its cause in an age where boroughs with unrepresentative populations were being singled out for reform. This act, in turn, appears to have caused the loss of city status, as there was no  corporate body available to petition for a renewal of its charter. The subsequent renewal of the status in 1995 (see City Status above) and the reasons then given conclude that the status was in place until 1886. The borough lay across two parishes, and by the time of the creation of registration districts in 1837 these were: the Cathedral Close of St. David's – the close surrounding the cathedral and associated church buildings; and St Davids – the rest of the city and rural areas. These were split from the church into civil parishes during 1866, electing secular councillors from 1895 , converted to Welsh community administrative areas in 1974, and merged in 1987 to form the present day St Davids and the Cathedral Close. St Davids City Council is the community council body, which has twelve councillors. The City Council employs one City Clerk and one Financial Officer. In June 2020 the council elected its first Sikh mayor, Councillor Bira Sehmi, believed also to be the first Sikh mayor in Wales. The parishes were part of Haverfordwest rural sanitary district, then Haverfordwest rural district from 1894 until 1974, when they were changed into communities and placed in Preseli district. Preseli was  abolished in 1996 under further local government reform and the city presently comes under Pembrokeshire County Council for all principal government services. The electoral ward of St Davids elects a county councillor to Pembrokeshire County Council. Culture. Arts. The city hosted the National Eisteddfod in 2002. The Archbishop-designate of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, was inducted into the Gorsedd of Bards, a historic order of Druids. Charity. The St Davids Penknife Club is a group of people dedicated to voluntary fund raising for local groups and charities. Sport. St Davids has a rugby union club, St. Davids RFC, which competes  in the Welsh Rugby Union League West. Tourism. In addition to the cathedral and 210 other listed ancient buildings and structures, notable features of the city and community include the 14th-century Tower Gate, the Celtic Old Cross and a number of art galleries. St Davids is also a base for walking and water sports. It has several hotels, a pharmacy, shops and galleries, a youth hostel and a number of pubs. In 2019 Consumers' Association members placed St Davids in the top three best value beach destinations in Britain. Whitesands Bay, about west of St Davids, is a popular  water sports resort. It has been described as the best surfing beach in Pembrokeshire and among the best tourist beaches in the world. Education. Ysgol Dewi Sant (St David's School) is the local secondary school covering years 7–13 (aged 11–18). Ysgol Bro Dewi (Dewisland School) is a Voluntary Controlled Primary School, with pupils from Reception to Year 6. Notable people. The following were born in St Davids: Twin towns. St Davids is twinned with: