St Davids Walk: City Centre【4K】

The honour of smallest city in the UK falls to St Davids (or Tyddewi in Welsh), located in Pembrokeshire in South Wales.

As per a traditional practice dating back to the rule of Henry VIII, city status was bestowed upon any town with a diocesan cathedral. However during Queen Victoria's reign, various cities were demoted to towns, St Davids being one of them when its city status was withdrawn in 1886. It wasn't until 1994 that this was reinstated at the request of Queen Elizabeth II.

As far as the statistics go, it has the smallest urban area of all cities in the UK at 0.23 sq mi (0.6 sq km) - the equivalent of about 84 football pitches. Its population clocked in at 1,841 according to the 2011 census (more recent data seems hard to come by for some reason). That's about one third of the capacity of Accrington Stanley's football stadium.

St Davids was formed around the 6th century AD as "Tyddewi", Welsh for "David's house" in reference to the monastery formed in the area by the Welsh patron saint of the same name. The original cathedral was plundered and burnt by the Vikings in 1087. The current cathedral was built between the 12th and 13th century.

A 12th century pope once decreed that two trips to St Davids were equal to one to Rome, turning it into a centre for pilgrimage for the entire western world.

Just opposite the cathedral lies Bishops Palace, or the ruins of it at least. Whilst its origins date back to the site of the original cathedral in the 6th century, it wasn't until the 14th century that it was upgraded from a building only fit for 'servants and animals' to an immense palace, as decreed by the bishop at that time, Henry de Gower. It is said that William Barlow, the first Protestant bishop of St Davids may have stripped the lead from the roofs, leading to its slow decay into ruin.

In addition to being the smallest city, St Davids is also the most westerly city in Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland).

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Filmed: December 2020

Link to the walk on Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/322f1sncnTrwsJ2DA

Filmed on a Sony FDR-AX700 with a Zhiyun Crane 2 and a Rode Videomicro.

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 High Street
2:36 Cross Square
3:22 The Pebbles
4:55 St Davids Cathedral
8:28 River Alun
8:37 St Davids Cathedral
8:51 River Alun
9:06 Bishop's Palace
9:43 River Alun
10:17 Bishop's Palace
10:59 St Davids Cathedral
11:14 Bishop's Palace
11:37 River Alun
11:59 Bishop's Palace