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The UK's Oldest Cities | |
 Oldest Cities and their Dates of Incorporation
This is a list of the oldest, still surviving, towns and cities in the UK and the world. There are some points of contention here and care should be taken when using the list below. The cities have been listed because either the archaeological record has shown, or documents have supported the claim, that the settlement was in existence at the time given. However, presence here should in no way indicate that there is total consensus over the date the city was founded — differences in opinion can result from different definitions of "city" (usually relating to the population size) as well as "continuously inhabited" (relating to changing population size; changes in location and changes in name). Additionally, where an approximate date has been given, the date was treated as the lower end of the estimate for the purposes of the table.
In almost all cases it is not known when any of the UK's old cities first began as a settlement. Some began as Celtic and Druidic tribe settlements but were built upon by the Romans. In fact most of the early written evidence we have originates from around the time of the Roman occupation. The Romans brought with them vastly superior town planning architecture and infrastructure transforming the previously primitive settlements into 'modern' cities with provisions for the resident population, and for travellers, traders and visitors. Prior to the occupation of the Roman Empire, there is little evidence about the origins of the settlements.
Despite the lack of evidence of the early settlements, the forerunners of the cities, we have historical records of when some cities were granted city status by the monarch. For other cities we have to concede that they have been cities since time beyond memory or record.
Oldest UK Cities - Predating Records
- Canterbury
- Carlisle
- Chichester
- Durham
- Exeter
- Lincoln
- City of London
- Salisbury
- Winchester
- York
- Bangor
Oldest UK Cities by Date of Incorporation
- Derry 1613 (also known as Londonderry)
- Bath 1590
- Lichfield 1553
- Bristol 1542
- Oxford 1542
- Chester 1541
- Peterborough 1541
- Gloucester 1541
- Westminster 1540
- Coventry 1345
- Edinburgh 1329
- Salisbury 1220
- Wells 1205
- Norwich 1195
- Hereford 1189
- Worcester 1189
- Newcastle upon Tyne 1080
- Ely 673
Cities less than a few Hundred Years Old
- Cardiff 1905
- Bradford 1897
- Hull 1897
- Nottingham 1897
- Leeds 1893
- Sheffield 1893
- Aberdeen 1891
- Birmingham 1889
- Dundee 1889
- Belfast 1888
- Wakefield 1888
- Newcastle upon Tyne 1882
- Liverpool 1880
- St Albans 1877
- Truro 1877
- Manchester 1853
- Ripon 1836
New Cities - This Century (last 100 years)
- Lisburn 2002
- Newport 2002
- Newry 2002
- Preston 2002
- Stirling 2002
- Brighton 2000
- Inverness 2000
- Wolverhampton 2000
- Armagh 1994
- St Davids 1994
- Sunderland 1992
- Derby 1977
- Swansea 1969
- Southampton 1964
- Cambridge 1951
- Lancaster 1937
- Plymouth 1928
- Portsmouth 1926
- Salford 1926
- Stoke-on-Trent 1925
- Leicester 1919
Non UK Cities that are still inhabited
- Tripoli, Lebanon 1400BC
- Gaza 1500BC
- Asyut 1500BC
- Cholula 1700BC
- Kutaisi 1700BC
- Aleppo 1800BC
- Jaffa 1800BC
- Luxor (as Thebes/Weset) 2000BC
- Jerusalem 2000BC
- Hama (as Hamath) 2000BC
- Balkh (as Bactra) 2000BC
- Adana 2000BC
- Kirkuk (as 'Arrapha') 2200
- Arbil 2300BC
- Delhi 2500
- Mohenjo-daro 2600BC
- Xinzheng 2700BC
- Tyre 2750BC
- Baalbek 3000BC
- Athens 3000BC
- Beirut 3000BC
- Varanasi 3000BC
- Harappa 3300BC
- Istanbul 3500BC
- Hebron 3500BC
- Gaziantep 3650BC
- Medinat Al-Fayoum 4000BC (as Crocodilopolis or Arsinoe)
- Sidon 4000BC
- Susa 4200BC
- Damascus 4300BC
- Byblos 5000BC
- Jericho 9000BC
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