A city since 1133
Last updated 09:43, Friday, 02 May 2008
While it is entirely appropriate for Carlisle to celebrate the 850th anniversary of the granting of a Charter by King Henry II in 1158 (The Cumberland News, April 25), this should not obscure the fact that it had already become a city in 1133.
It was then that King Henry I created the Diocese of Carlisle and established Carlisle’s recently-founded Augustinian Priory Church as its cathedral.
This is certainly the view of Carlisle’s eminent historian Dr Henry Summerson who, in his book Medieval Carlisle, published in 1993, states; “in 1133 the town became the seat of a bishop and so a city.”
This is admittedly one of several definitions of what constitutes a city, but it is a valid one.
CANON DAVID WESTON
St James Road
Carlisle
