Editing Town (section)

=== United Kingdom ===
{{Main|City status in the United Kingdom}}

==== England and Wales ====
{{Main|List of urban areas in England by population|list of urban areas in Wales by population}}

[[File:Rugby town centre.jpg|thumb|right|A traditional English town centre at [[Rugby, Warwickshire|Rugby]]]]

In England and Wales, a town traditionally was a settlement which had a charter to hold a [[Market (place)|market]] or [[fair]] and therefore became a "[[market town]]". Market towns were distinguished from villages in that they were the economic hub of a surrounding area, and were usually larger and had more facilities.

In parallel with popular usage, however, there are many technical and official definitions of what constitutes a town, to which various interested parties cling.

In modern official usage the term ''town'' is employed either for old market towns, or for settlements which have a [[town council]], or for settlements which elsewhere would be classed a city, but which do not have [[city status in the United Kingdom|the legal right]] to call themselves such. Any parish council can decide to describe itself as a town council, but this will usually only apply to the smallest "towns" (because larger towns will be larger than a single civil parish).

Not all settlements which are commonly described as towns have a town council or borough council. In fact, because of many successive changes to the structure of local government, there are now few large towns which are represented by a body closely related to their historic borough council. These days, a smaller town will usually be part of a local authority which covers several towns. And where a larger town ''is'' the seat of a local authority, the authority will usually cover a much wider area than the town itself (either a large rural hinterland, or several other, smaller towns).

Additionally, there are "[[New towns in the United Kingdom|new town]]s" which were created during the 20th century, such as [[Basildon]], [[Redditch]] and [[Telford]].

Some settlements which describe themselves as towns (e.g. [[Shipston-on-Stour]], [[Warwickshire]]) are smaller than some large villages (e.g. [[Kidlington]], [[Oxfordshire]]).

The status of a ''city'' is reserved for places that have [[letters patent]] entitling them to the name, historically associated with the possession of a cathedral. Some large municipalities (such as [[Northampton]] and [[Bournemouth]]) are legally [[borough]]s but not cities, whereas some cities are quite small — such as [[Ely, Cambridgeshire|Ely]] or [[St David's]]. The city of [[Brighton and Hove]] was created from the two former towns and some surrounding villages, and within the city the correct term for the former distinct entities is somewhat unclear.

[[File:Windhill.jpg|thumb|[[Bishop's Stortford]]]]

It appears that a city may become a town, though perhaps only through administrative error: [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]] in Kent had been a city for centuries but, when in 1998 the [[Medway]] district was created, a bureaucratic blunder meant that Rochester lost its official [[City status in the United Kingdom|city status]] and is now technically a town.

It is often thought that towns with [[cathedral|bishops' seats]] rank automatically as cities: however, [[Chelmsford]] was a town until 5 June 2012 despite being the seat of the [[diocese of Chelmsford]], created in 1914. [[St Asaph]], which is the seat of the [[diocese of St Asaph]], only became a city on 1 June 2012 though the diocese was founded in the mid-sixth century. In reality, the pre-qualification of having a cathedral of the established [[Church of England]], and the formerly established [[Church in Wales]] or [[Church of Ireland]], ceased to apply from 1888.

The word ''town'' can also be used as a general term for urban areas, including cities and in a few cases, districts within cities. In this usage, a city is a type of town; a large one, with a certain status. For example, central [[Greater London]] is sometimes referred to colloquially as "London town". (The "[[City of London]]" is the historical nucleus, informally known as the "Square Mile", and is administratively separate from the rest of Greater London, while the [[City of Westminster]] is also technically a city and is also a [[London borough]].) [[Camden Town]] and [[Somers Town, London|Somers Town]] are districts of London, as [[New Town, Edinburgh|New Town]] is a district of [[Edinburgh]] – actually the Georgian centre.

In recent years the division between cities and towns has grown, leading to the establishment of groups like the Centre for Towns, who work to highlight the issues facing many towns.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.centrefortowns.org/about-us|title=About Us|last=Design|first=Concom Website|website=Centre For Towns|language=en-gb|access-date=26 January 2020}}</ref> Towns also became a significant issue in the [[2020 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|2020 Labour Party leadership election]], with [[Lisa Nandy]] making significant reference to Labour needing to win back smaller towns which have swung away from the party.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/economy/house/house-magazine/107129/lisa-nandy-mp-britains-towns-are-short-changed-cities|title=Lisa Nandy MP: Britain's towns are short-changed as cities capture an ever-greater share of foreign investment|last=PoliticsHome.com|date=8 October 2019|website=PoliticsHome.com|language=en|access-date=26 January 2020}}</ref>

==== Scotland ====
{{Main|List of burghs in Scotland|List of towns and cities in Scotland by population}}
{{unreferenced section|date=March 2023}}

In Scotland the word ''town'' has no specific legal meaning and (especially in areas which were or are still [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]]-speaking) can refer to a mere collection of buildings (e.g. a ''farm-town'' or in [[Scots language|Scots]] {{lang|sco|ferm-toun}}), not all of which might be inhabited, or to an inhabited area of any size which is not otherwise described in terms such as [[city]], [[burgh]], etc. Many locations of greatly different size will be encountered with a name ending with ''-town'', ''-ton'', ''-toun'' etc. (or beginning with the Gaelic equivalent {{lang|gd|baile}} etc.).<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 December 2021 |title=Here all the Scottish towns and areas applying for city status in 2021 |url=https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/homes-and-gardens/here-all-the-scottish-towns-applying-for-city-status-in-2021-3505403 |access-date=23 May 2023 |website=The Scotsman |language=en}}</ref>

"[[Burgh]]" (pronounced ''burruh'') is the [[Scots language|Scots]] term for a town or a municipality. They were highly [[Autonomous area|autonomous]] units of [[Local government in Scotland|local government]] from at least the 12th century until their abolition in 1975, when a new [[Local government areas of Scotland 1973 to 1996|regional structure of local government]] was introduced across the country. Usually based upon a town, they had a [[municipal corporation]] and certain rights, such as a degree of [[self-governance]] and representation in the sovereign [[Parliament of Scotland]] adjourned in 1707.

The term no longer describes units of local government, although various claims are made from time to time that the legislation used was not competent to change the status of the Royal Burghs described below. The status is now chiefly ceremonial but various functions have been inherited by current councils (e.g. the application of various endowments providing for public benefit) which might only apply within the area previously served by a burgh; in consequence a burgh can still exist (if only as a defined geographical area) and might still be signed as such by the current local authority. The word 'burgh' is generally not used as a synonym for 'town' or 'city' in everyday speech, but is reserved mostly for government and administrative purposes.

Historically, the most important burghs were [[royal burgh]]s, followed by [[burgh of regality|burghs of regality]] and [[burgh of barony|burghs of barony]]. Some newer settlements were only designated as [[police burgh]]s from the 19th century onward, a classification which also applies to most of the older burghs.