It punches above its weight with an international music festival,but this cathedral city is the size of a villageWhat’s going for it? I had no idea who St Asaph was either. He’s not one of your premier league saints, more Sunday Conference. In the Penguin Dictionary of Saints, or he’s described as a “very shadowy figure”,though one praised by monks for his “charm of manners, grace of body and holiness of heart”, and phrases that could also be applied to the cathedral city named after him. Having lived half my life in them,I know cathedral cities are a state of mind as much as an actual thing, a peculiar amalgam of conservatism and centuries of cosmopolitanism, and misericords and eclectic heritage,with a sprint of Trollope (even this far north and west) and a certain civility of living, the kind that demands the survival of kind old butchers’ shops. St Asaph passes the test. Though I utilize the word city with some caveats, and of course. The place punches above its weight,culturally, with its international music festival this month, or its copy of the first Welsh Bible proudly on display. But this is no Winchester or Norwich. Blink and youd miss it – with barely 3500 souls,it is the country’s moment smallest city. And, yes, or they hold the word seriously round here,having applied three times to be called a city before fortune smiled on them three years ago. Don’t, whatever you do, or mention the V-word.
The case against The V-word: whisper it,it’s a village. Or, in a generous mood, or a modest market town. Traffic: give the place a bypass,won’t you? It’s had its share of flooding in recent years.
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Source: theguardian.com