St Asaph
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| City andCommunity | |
 St. Asaph Cathedral and city | |
  St Asaph Location withinDenbighshire | |
| Population | 3,485 (Community, 2021)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SJ035743 |
| Community |
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| Principal area | |
| Preserved county | |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ST. ASAPH |
| Postcode district | LL17 |
| Dialling code | 01745 |
| Police | North Wales |
| Fire | North Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| UK Parliament | |
| Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament | |
53°15′29″N3°26′31″W / 53.258°N 3.442°W /53.258; -3.442  Map of the community | |
St Asaph (/ˈæsəf/;[2]Welsh:Llanelwy[ɬanˈɛlʊɨ̯] "church on the Elwy"[3]) is acathedral city[4] andcommunity on theRiver Elwy inDenbighshire,Wales. At the2021 census the community had a population of 3,485, making it thesecond-smallest city in the United Kingdom in terms of population. It was historically inFlintshire.
The city of St Asaph is surrounded by countryside and views of theVale of Clwyd. It is situated close to a number of towns includingDenbigh,Rhuddlan,Rhyl,Holywell andAbergele.
The earliest inhabitants of the vale of Elwy lived at the nearbyPaleolithic site ofPontnewydd (Bontnewydd), which was excavated from 1978 by a team from theUniversity of Wales, led by Stephen Aldhouse Green. Teeth and part of a jawbone excavated in 1981 were dated to 225,000 years ago. This site is the most north-western site in Eurasia for remains of earlyhominids and is considered of international importance. Based on the morphology and age of the teeth, particularly the evidence oftaurodontism, the teeth are believed to belong to a group ofNeanderthals who hunted game in the vale of Elwy in an interglacial period.
Later some historians postulate that the Roman fort of Varae sat on the site of the cathedral. However, the city is believed to have developed around a sixth-centuryCelticmonastery founded bySaint Kentigern, and is now home to the small 14th centurySt Asaph Cathedral. This is dedicated toSaint Asaph (also spelt in Welsh as Asaff), its secondbishop.
The cathedral has had a chequered history. In the 13th century, the troops ofEdward I of England burnt the cathedral almost to the ground, and in 1402Owain Glyndŵr's troops went on the rampage, causing severe damage to the furnishings and fittings. Two hundred and fifty years later, during theCommonwealth, the building was used to house farm animals: pigs, cattle and horses.[5]
As the seat of a medieval cathedral anddiocese, St Asaph was historically regarded as acity, and the1911Encyclopædia Britannica refers to it as a city on that basis;[6] however the UK government clarified that St Asaph was previously the only one of the twenty twoancient cathedral dioceses in England and Wales (pre-Reformation) not to have been awarded city status.[7] The town applied for the status in competitions held by the British government in 2000 (for the Millennium) and 2002 (Queen's Golden Jubilee) but was unsuccessful. In 2012 it again competed for city status during theQueen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. It was announced on 14 March 2012 that the application was successful, and city status was to be bestowed upon St Asaph alongsideChelmsford andPerth.[8][9] The status was formally granted byletters patent dated 1 June 2012.[10]
The award of city status is typically granted to alocal authority,[11] whose administrative area is then considered to be the formal borders of the city. By this definition, the wholecommunity area of St Asaph is considered to be the extent of the city, including itsurban and rural areas. St Asaph contains the second lowest population of all the cities of the UK, and has the second smallest urban area of 0.5 sq mi (1.3 km2), both measures behindSt Davids which has 1,841 residents and covers 0.23 sq mi (0.60 km2). However, with the formal city sizing defined by its community council area of 2.49 sq mi (6.4 km2), two other UK cities are smaller than St Asaph by boundary: theCity of London smallest at 1.12 sq mi (2.9 km2) andWells second with 2.11 sq mi (5.5 km2). In Wales, St Asaph is the smallest by council area, withBangor a close second at 2.79 sq mi (7.2 km2).
Despite the previous lack of official city status, the community council had referred to itself as the City of St Asaph Town Council. The local community is passionate about St Asaph's historic claim to be known as a city like its Welsh cousin St Davids, which has led to a number of local businesses using 'City' as part of their business name. The city is promoted locally as the "City of Music".
The past few decades have seen the local economy in St Asaph thrive, first with the opening of theA55 road in 1970, which took east–west traffic away from the city, and, more recently, with a business park being built, attracting investment from home and overseas.
The crowded roads in St Asaph have been a hot political issue for many years. In recent years, increasing volumes of traffic on the A525, St Asaph High Street, which links A55 with the Clwyd Valley, Denbigh and Ruthin, have led to severe congestion in the city. This congestion is having a detrimental effect on the city, and residents have repeatedly called for a bypass to take this north–south road and its traffic away from the city, but theNational Assembly for Wales rejected these calls in 2004, presenting a further setback for residents campaigning on the issue.
St Asaph is now home toYsgol Glan Clwyd, a Welsh medium secondary school that opened inRhyl in 1956 and moved to St Asaph in 1969. It was the first Welsh medium secondary school in Wales.
An original copy of theWelsh Bible is kept on public display in St Asaph Cathedral. It was used at theinvestiture ofPrince Charles asPrince of Wales in 1969.
St Asaph is twinned with the town ofBégard inBrittany, France.[12]
Every year the city hosts theNorth Wales International Music Festival, which takes place at several venues in the city and attracts musicians and music lovers from all over Wales and beyond. In past years, the main event in September at the cathedral has been covered on television by theBBC.
Other annual events in the city include the increasingly popularWoodfest Wales crafts festival in June, the Beat the Bounds charity walk in July and the Gala Day in August.
In addition to the cathedral, there are five other churches in St Asaph covering all the major Christian denominations. The Parish Church of St Asaph and St Kentigern (Church in Wales) is placed prominently at the bottom of the High Street, across the river in Lower Denbigh Road is Penniel Chapel (WelshMethodist) and halfway up the High Street there is Llanelwy Community Church (Baptist). At the top of the city, in Chester Street is St Winifride's (Roman Catholic) and Bethlehem Chapel (WelshPresbyterian) in Bronwylfa Square.
The City Council comprises two wards that both elect sevencouncillors.[13] The presiding officer and chairperson of the council is TheRt Wp TheMayorCllr Colin Hardie.[13]
In the2022 local elections, St Asaph elected the firstGreen Party councillor in Denbighshire in the St Asaph East electoral ward.[14]
St Asaph was anancient parish.[15] It appears to have historically been on the borders of thecommote of Rhuddlan in thecantref ofTegeingl, and the commote of Isdulas in the cantref ofRhufoniog. Under theStatute of Rhuddlan in 1284, Tegeingl became part of the new county of Flintshire and Rhufoniog became part of themarcher lordship ofDenbighland. The Statute of Rhuddlan does not specifically name St Asaph, and there is some ambiguity as to whether it was in Flintshire or Denbighland; it may have been administered as a separateliberty.[16]
In 1536, the new county ofDenbighshire was created under theLaws in Wales Act 1535, comprising the old lordship of Denbighland plus other "lordships, townships, parishes, commotes and cantreds", one of which was "Saint Tasse", being St Asaph.[17] Six years later, in 1542, St Asaph was transferred instead to Flintshire, with the act of parliament which transferred it noting that it had "...of old time been reputed accepted and taken as part and parcel of the county of Flint...".[18][16]
The parish of St Asaph covered a large rural area as well as the settlement itself, and straddled thehundred of Isdulas in Denbighshire and the hundred of Rhuddlan in Flintshire. It was subdivided into 13townships:[19][20][21]
Meriadog and Wigfair were in Denbighshire, the rest of the parish was in Flintshire. The cathedral, the parish church of St Kentigern, and the core of the urban area were in the Brynpolyn township.[22][23] Anecclesiastical parish of Bodelwyddan was created in 1860 covering the Bodelwyddan, Pengwern and Faenol townships, but it remained part of thecivil parish of St Asaph.[24] Another ecclesiastical parish, calledCefn, was created in 1865 covering the two Denbighshire townships of the civil parish.[25]
TheLocal Government Act 1894 directed that civil parishes could no longer straddle county boundaries. The two Denbighshire townships of Meriadog and Wigfair were therefore together made a new civil parish called Cefn in 1895.[26] The following year, the reduced parish of St Asaph within Flintshire ceded an area toRhuddlan, and the remainder was split into three civil parishes: Bodelwyddan,Waen and a much reduced St Asaph parish.[27]
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St Asaph is served by regular buses toDenbigh,Rhuddlan andRhyl. The city was once served by astation on theVale of Clwyd Railway line, which closed in the 1960s. However, the station remains and the site is now in use as abuilders yard. The nearest stations are now inRhyl andPensarn. The city is also close to the heritage railways atLlangollen andBala Lake in the town ofBala.
A number of famous people have strong links to St Asaph, having been born, raised, lived, worked or died in the city. These include:
Another well-known individual,Geoffrey of Monmouth, served asLord Bishop of St Asaph from 1152 to 1155. However, due to war and unrest in Wales at the time, he probably never set foot in his see.
The hospital in the city (formerly the St Asaph Union Workhouse) was namedH.M. Stanley Hospital in honour ofSir Henry Morton Stanley; it closed in 2012. The city'shospice was named afterSaint Kentigern.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Applications may only be made by an elected local authority – normally, in respect of the entire local authority area.
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