A town is a type of a human settlement . Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities , though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
91-580: Soham ( / ˈ s oʊ ə m / SOH -əm ) is a town and civil parish in the district of East Cambridgeshire , in Cambridgeshire , England, just off the A142 between Ely and Newmarket . Its population was 12,336 at the 2021 census. The region between Devil's Dyke and the line between Littleport and Shippea Hill shows a remarkable amount of archaeological findings of the Stone Age ,
182-408: A Millionenstadt , a city with anywhere between one and five million inhabitants (such as Cologne , Munich , Hamburg and Berlin ). Also, a city with more than five million inhabitants is often referred to as a Megastadt (commonly translated as megacity ). Historically, many settlements became a Stadt by being awarded a Stadtrecht in medieval times. In modern German language use,
273-542: A further 17 towns , which have merged with a municipal parish ( vallasisene linn ). In Finland, there is no distinction between a town and a city as the word kaupunki is used for both bigger and smaller settlements, which are bigger than villages and boroughs; although when talking about the word town , the word pikkukaupunki is used ( pikku means 'little' or 'small'). There are over one hundred municipal towns in Finland. From an administrative standpoint,
364-453: A see at Dommoc , possibly at Walton, Suffolk near Felixstowe , or Dunwich in Suffolk . According to Bede, Felix helped Sigeberht to establish a school in his kingdom "where boys could be taught letters". Felix died on 8 March 647 or 648, having been bishop for 17 years. His relics were translated from Dommoc to Soham Abbey and then to the abbey at Ramsey . After his death, he
455-586: A description of the church at the Cambridgeshire Churches website. The first black British author and anti-slave activist, Olaudah Equiano , also known as Gustavus Vassa, married a local girl, Susannah Cullen, at St Andrew's Church, on 7 April 1792 and the couple lived in the town for several years. They had two daughters. Anna Maria was born on 16 October 1793 and baptised in St Andrew's on 30 January 1794. Their second child, Joanna Vassa ,
546-469: A fence or a hedge. In English and Dutch, the meaning of the word took on the sense of the space which these fences enclosed, and through which a track must run. In England, a town was a small community that could not afford or was not allowed to build walls or other larger fortifications, and built a palisade or stockade instead. In the Netherlands, this space was a garden, more specifically those of
637-561: A higher degree of services . (There are a few exceptions, when towns of fewer than 50,000 people gained the status: Érd , Hódmezővásárhely , Salgótarján and Szekszárd ) As of middle 2013, there are only 23 such towns in Hungary. The 2011 Census of India defines towns of two types: statutory town and census town . Statutory town is defined as all places with a municipality , corporation , cantonment board or notified town area committee. Census towns are defined as places that satisfy
728-604: A higher tier of local government, larger towns and cities may have the status of a kreisfreie Stadt , combining both the powers of a municipality and a district. Designations in different states are as diverse as e.g. in Australian States and Territories, and differ from state to state. In some German states, the words Markt ('market'), Marktflecken (both used in southern Germany) or Flecken ('spot'; northern Germany e.g. in Lower Saxony ) designate
819-426: A municipality must have at least 3,000 inhabitants to have the right to request the town title. Market towns usually have between 500 and 4,000 inhabitants, with median and average both around 1,000. In Denmark, in many contexts no distinction is made between "city", "town" and "village"; all three translate as by . In more specific use, for small villages and hamlets the word landsby (meaning 'country town')
910-419: A new station would be built on the old site. Initial works on the station started in autumn 2020, followed by the main construction during 2021. The first timetabled passenger train to stop at Soham Station for 56 years was the 06:49 towards Ely and Peterborough on Monday 13 December 2021. Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia . Television signals are received from either
1001-537: A social and technical infrastructure, as well as a population of no fewer than 3500 people. For resort settlements the requirements are lower with the population needing to be no fewer than 1000 people but infrastructure requirements remain. The legal definition of a town in Canada varies by province or territory , as each has jurisdiction over defining and legislating towns, cities and other types of municipal organization within its own boundaries. The province of Quebec
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#17327757702551092-515: A system of educating youngsters to become priests had been in existence since the Augustinian mission of 597, and where education was used to promote Christian learning throughout all levels of society. There is no evidence that Felix's school was at Soham Abbey , as stated by later sources. The Liber Eliensis mentioned that Felix also founded Soham Abbey and a church at Reedham, Norfolk : "Indeed, one reads in an English source that St Felix
1183-408: A town such as Parun , the capital of Nuristan Province , whose population is less 20,000 people. In Albania and Kosovo qytezë means 'town', which is very similar to the word for city ( qytet ), although there is no official use of the term for any settlement. In Albanian qytezë means 'small city' or 'new city', while in ancient times it referred to a small residential center within
1274-563: A town-like residential community between Gemeinde and Stadt with special importance to its outer conurbation area. Historically those had Marktrecht (market right) but not full town privileges; see Market town . The legal denomination of a specific settlement may differ from its common designation (e.g. Samtgemeinde – a legal term in Lower Saxony for a group of villages [ Dorf , pl. Dörfer ] with common local government created by combining municipalities [ Gemeinde , pl. Gemeinden ]). In ordinary speech, Greeks use
1365-704: Is Stadt , as it is the case in many other languages that do not differentiate between these concepts. The word for a 'village', as a smaller settlement, is Dorf . However, the International Statistics Conference of 1887 defined different sizes of Stadt , based on their population size, as follows: Landstadt ('country town'; under 5,000), Kleinstadt ('small town'; 5,000 to 20,000), Mittelstadt ('middle town'; between 20,000 and 100,000) and Großstadt ("large town"; 100,000 to 1,000,000). The term Großstadt may be translated as 'city'. In addition, Germans may speak of
1456-541: Is 'Soegham'. 'Soeg' is obviously the same as Swedish dialect 'sogg', wet, 'swampy', related to 'sagt', drenched; all from the root verb seen in Anglo-Saxon 'sigan', to sink, drain; whence also the Icelandic 'saggi', moisture, dampness... The names Eye Hill , Eau Fen , Soham Mere all point to the time when what is now cultivated land, was nothing more than a watery waste. Qua Fen may be a corruption of 'Quay', ie,
1547-471: Is a de facto statutory city. All the Czech municipalities with more than 40,000 inhabitants are cities. Town and market town are above all ceremonious honorary degrees, referring to population, history and regional significance of a municipality. As the statistics of Czech municipalities shows, towns usually have between 1,000 and 35,000 inhabitants, with median around 4,000 and average around 6,500. Nowadays
1638-547: Is an alternative name for "city" or "village" (especially a small city or large village; and occasionally even hamlets ). Sometimes, the word town is short for township . In general, today towns can be differentiated from townships, villages, or hamlets on the basis of their economic character, in that most of a town's population will tend to derive their living from manufacturing industry, commerce , and public services rather than primary sector industries such as agriculture or related activities. A place's population size
1729-422: Is commonly referred to as a city or as a town, no distinction and no objective legal criteria exist to make such a distinction under law. Ontario allows municipalities to select whichever administrative term they like with no legal distinction existing between towns, townships, cities, and villages. Instead all municipalities, with the exception of Toronto and Ottawa, fall into one of three legal categories under
1820-530: Is difficult to call the remaining provincial capitals "large towns" as, in general, they are less developed and have shrinking population, some with as few as 30,000 inhabitants. In Bulgaria the Council of Ministers defines what constitutes a settlement, while the President of Bulgaria grants each settlement its title. In 2005 the requirement that villages that wish to classify themselves as town must have
1911-561: Is not a reliable determinant of urban character. In many areas of the world, e.g. in India at least until recent times, a large village might contain several times as many people as a small town. In the United Kingdom, there are historical cities that are far smaller than the larger towns. The modern phenomenon of extensive suburban growth, satellite urban development, and migration of city dwellers to villages has further complicated
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#17327757702552002-420: Is partitioned into 2098 municipalities ( German : Gemeinden ) of fundamentally equal rank. Larger municipalities are designated as market towns ( German : Marktgemeinden ) or cities ( Städte ), but these distinctions are purely symbolic and do not confer additional legal responsibilities. There is a number of smaller communities that are labelled cities because they used to be regional population centers in
2093-504: Is said to have landed. Sigeberht was the first English ruler to receive baptism before becoming king. Probably a son of Rædwald (ruled 599 to 624) and the brother of Rædwald's successor, Eorpwald , he was forced into exile during Rædwald's rule, after which he became a devout Christian and a man of learning. In about 627, Eorpwald was killed by Ricberht , who then ruled the East Angles for three years. Sigeberht became king of
2184-468: Is unique in that it makes no distinction under law between towns and cities. There is no intermediate level in French between village and ville ( municipality is an administrative term usually applied to a legal, not geographical entity), so both are combined under the single legal status of ville . While an informal preference may exist among English speakers as to whether any individual ville
2275-492: Is used, while the Danish equivalent of English city is storby (meaning 'large town'). For formal purposes, urban areas having at least 200 inhabitants are considered by . Historically some towns held various privileges, the most important of which was the right to hold market. They were administered separately from the rural areas in both fiscal, military and legal matters. Such towns are known as købstad (roughly
2366-1008: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . Bede wrote that Felix freed "the whole of this kingdom from long-standing evil and unhappiness". Felix came from the Frankish kingdom of Burgundy , and may have been a priest at one of the monasteries in Francia founded by the Irish missionary Columbanus —he may have been Bishop of Châlons , before being forced to seek refuge elsewhere. Felix travelled from Burgundy to Canterbury , before being sent by Archbishop Honorius of Canterbury to Sigeberht of East Anglia 's kingdom in about 630 (travelling by sea to Babingley in Norfolk, according to local legend). Upon his arrival in East Anglia, Sigeberht gave him
2457-651: The Archbishop of Canterbury , Honorius . Bede wrote of the exertions of Sigeberht, king of the East Angles: Among the East Anglian traditions associated with Felix, one relates that he founded the church in Babingley , Norfolk, in 631 when he arrived there to convert the East Angles. The ruins stand about 200 metres (660 ft) north of where a navigable estuary once existed, and where Felix
2548-528: The Bronze Age and the Iron Age . A couple of hoards of bronze objects are found in the area of Soham, including one with swords and spearheads of the later Bronze Age as well as a gold torc , retrieved in 1938. A large Anglo-Saxon settlement was discovered on land between Brook Street and Fordham Road, next to Roman remains in the old Fisky's Hill area and former allotment site in 2013 and onwards. During
2639-542: The Domesday Survey the name of the parish is spelt 'Soeham,' or 'Seaham', and in more modern works 'Seham'. Other forms met with are Soame, Shoame, Swoham, Some, Saham. Soham is spelt 'Soegham' in Charter No. 865. It occurs in a will of Ælfloed about AD 972; this will recites the will of Queen Æthelfloed , wife of King Edmund I . It concerns grants of land at Rettendon, Soham, and Ditton. The Anglo-Saxon name
2730-568: The German word Zaun , the Dutch word tuin , and the Old Norse tún . The original Proto-Germanic word, * tūnan , is thought to be an early borrowing from Proto-Celtic * dūnom (cf. Old Irish dún , Welsh din ). The original sense of the word in both Germanic and Celtic was that of a fortress or an enclosure. Cognates of town in many modern Germanic languages designate
2821-854: The Sandy Heath or Tacolneston TV transmitters. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Cambridgeshire , Heart East , and Star Radio . The town's local newspapers are the Ely Standard and Cambridge News . The Ross Peers Sports Centre is run by the Soham & District Sports Association Committee and is home to the Soham Indoor Bowls Club and Rink Hockey Team Soham have two non-league football clubs, Soham Town Rangers F.C. , who play at Julius Martin Lane, and Soham United FC. Town The word "town" shares an origin with
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2912-719: The Second World War , when a fire developed on the leading wagon of a heavy ammunition train travelling slowly through the town. The town was saved by the bravery of four railway staff, Benjamin Gimbert (driver), James Nightall (fireman), Frank Bridges (signalman) and Herbert Clarke (guard), who uncoupled the rest of the train and drove the engine and lead wagon clear of the town, where it exploded, killing Jim Nightall and Frank Bridges but causing no further deaths. Ben Gimbert survived and spent seven weeks in hospital. Although small in comparison to what would have happened if
3003-484: The 1950s, to accommodate exponential population increase. The first new towns included Tsuen Wan and Kwun Tong . In the late 1960s and the 1970s, another stage of new town developments was launched. Nine new towns have been developed so far. Land use is carefully planned and development provides plenty of room for public housing projects. Rail transport is usually available at a later stage. The first towns are Sha Tin , Tsuen Wan , Tuen Mun and Tseung Kwan O . Tuen Mun
3094-541: The 21st century, merged most κοινότητες with the nearest δήμοι , dividing the whole country into 325 self-governing δήμοι . The former municipalities survive as administrative subdivisions ( δημοτικά διαμερίσματα , δημοτικές ενότητες ). Cyprus, including the Turkish-occupied areas, is also divided into 39 δήμοι (in principle, with at least 5,000 inhabitants, though there are exceptions) and 576 κοινότητες . Hong Kong started developing new towns in
3185-731: The Anglo-Saxon settlement period. In Old English and Early and Middle Scots , the words ton , toun , etc. could refer to diverse kinds of settlements from agricultural estates and holdings, partly picking up the Norse sense (as in the Scots word fermtoun ) at one end of the scale, to fortified municipalities. Other common Anglo-Saxon suffixes included ham 'home', stede 'stead', and burh 'bury, borough, burgh'. In toponymic terminology, names of individual towns and cities are called astyonyms or astionyms (from Ancient Greek ἄστυ 'town, city', and ὄνομα 'name'). In some cases, town
3276-564: The Church in the kingdom of East Anglia and religious establishments in Francia. Such associations were partly due to the work of Columbanus and his disciples at Luxeuil; together with Eustace , his successor, Columbanus inspired Burgundofara to found the abbey at Faremoutiers. It has been suggested that a connection between the disciples of Columbanus (who strongly influenced the Christians of Northern Burgundy) and Felix helps to explain how
3367-419: The Church of St Andrew. Ranulph is recorded as the first Vicar of Soham and had a hand in designing the 'new' Norman church. The current church is mainly later, the tower being the latest addition in the 15th century. This tower was built to replace a fallen crossing tower and now contains ten bells. The back six were cast in 1788, with two new trebles and two bells being recast in 1808. There are some pictures and
3458-510: The East Angles after Richberht's death in 630. According to the historian Marios Costambeys, Felix's arrival in East Anglia seems to have coincided with the start of a new period of order established by Sigeberht when he became king. Costambeys adds that Sigeberht's accession may have been the reason Honorius decided to send Felix to East Anglia. Peter Hunter Blair challenged the assertion by mediaeval sources that spoke of Felix and Sigeberht travelling together from Francia to England, as in his view
3549-493: The East Anglian Church was made still stronger when the Irish monk Fursey arrived from Ireland and founded a monastery, at Cnobheresburg, probably located at Burgh Castle , in Norfolk. Felix died in 647 or 648, after he had been bishop for 17 years. Following his death, which probably occurred during the reign of Anna of East Anglia , Thomas , a Fenman , became the second Bishop of the East Angles. Felix
3640-529: The East of the town along with fossils towards the bypass. An extensive ditch system, not visible via aerial photography , has also been identified, as well as a wooden trackway 800 m (870 yd) in length between Fordey Farm ( Barway ) and Little Thetford , with associated shards of later Bronze Age pottery (1935). According to an article published in Fenland Notes & Queries in 1899: In
3731-586: The English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk . The 7th-century jewelled grave goods found at Sutton Hoo display manufacturing technologies that are likely to be of Frankish origin, and materials that arrived in East Anglia via Francia. The connection between the East Anglian Wuffingas dynasty and the Frankish abbess Burgundofara at Faremoutiers Abbey was an example of the link between
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3822-657: The Minister of Internal Affairs selects candidates from a committee-screened list of applicants, whom the President of Republic usually affirms by issuing a bill of town's rank to them. Since being a town carries extra fiscal support from the government, many relatively small villages try to win the status of városi rang ('town rank') nowadays. Before the fall of communism in 1990, Hungarian villages with fewer than 10,000 residents were not allowed to become towns. Recently some settlements as small as 2,500 souls have received
3913-517: The Municipalities Act: Single-tier (I.e. towns that are located within a region or county but that are considered separate for municipal purposes such as Hamilton ), lower-tier (i.e. municipalities that are part of a region or county such as St. Catharines ), or upper-tier (i.e. regional municipalities such as Niagara ). Accordingly, many larger municipalities continue to use the title of town due to it better reflecting
4004-677: The National Statistics Institute (INE) as an urban entity with a population from 2001 to 5000 or an area with a population from 1001 to 2000 and an established economic activity. In Czechia , a municipality can obtain the title of a city ( Czech : statutární město ), town ( Czech : město ) or market town ( Czech : městys ). The title is granted by law. Statutory cities (in English usually called just "cities"), which are defined by law no. 128/2000 Coll., can define their own self-governing municipal districts. There are 26 such cities, in addition to Prague , which
4095-582: The Wuffingas dynasty established its links with Faremoutiers. The historian N. J. Higham notes several suggestions for where Felix may have originated, including Luxeuil, Châlons or the area around Autun . Other historians have made connections between Felix and the Burgundian king Dagobert I , who had contact with both King Sigeberht of East Anglia and Amandus , a disciple of Columbanus. The historians Judith McClure and Roger Collins have noted
4186-475: The appurtenances of local government (e.g. a police force). In the United States these are referred to as "incorporated towns". In other cases the town lacks its own governance and is said to be "unincorporated". The existence of an unincorporated town may be legally set out by other means, e.g. zoning districts. In the case of some planned communities , the town exists legally in the form of covenants on
4277-469: The beginning of the root word (e.g. nagyváros ) have been normalized to differentiate between cities and towns (towns being smaller, therefore bearing the name kisváros .) In Hungary, a village can gain the status of város ('town'), if it meets a set of diverse conditions for quality of life and development of certain public services and utilities (e.g. having a local secondary school or installing full-area sewage collection pipe network). Every year
4368-636: The better of their rivals from the abbey at Ely , the Ramsey monks escaped by rowing their boats through thick Fenland fog, carrying with them the bishop's precious remains. Felix's feast day is celebrated on 8 March, the date given by two Anglo-Saxon kalendars . He was canonized before the Schism of 1054 , early enough to be venerated in both the East and the West. There are six churches in England dedicated to
4459-413: The burial-ground at Sutton Hoo were sited. A church and priory were dedicated to Felix at Walton by Roger Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk , soon after 1106. Bede related that Felix started a school, "where boys could be taught letters", to provide Sigeberht with teachers. Bede is unclear as to the origin of the teachers at the school that Felix established; they may have been from kingdom of Kent , where
4550-406: The caretaker at the local secondary school, Soham Village College , was convicted of their murders and sentenced to life in prison. He had given a number of police and television interviews while the girls were missing, claiming to have seen them on the evening of their disappearance, and was finally arrested several hours before their bodies were found, following the recovery of clothing belonging to
4641-399: The character of the municipality. For example, Oakville (2021 Population: 213,759) is the largest municipality to use the title of town to reflect its largely suburban character while other municipalities such as Richmond Hill (2021 Population: 202,022) have opted to change their status from "town" to "city" to encourage investment. In Chile , towns (Spanish: pueblos ) are defined by
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#17327757702554732-470: The consolidation of large estates during the Roman Empire , the town became the center of large farms. A distinction was created between rustic and urban settlements: In Afghanistan , a city and a town are both referred to as shār ( Dari : شهر ; Pashto : ښار ). The capital of each of its 34 provinces may include a major city such as Kabul whose population is over five million people or
4823-560: The damaged train and text detailing the incident. In August 2002, Soham became the centre of national media attention following the disappearance and murder of two 10-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, who both lived in Soham. They disappeared from the family home of Holly Wells in Redhouse Gardens on the evening of 4 August. Both were found dead some 10 miles (16 km) away, near RAF Lakenheath , on 17 August. In December 2003, Ian Huntley, who had been employed as
4914-414: The definition of towns, creating communities urban in their economic and cultural characteristics but lacking other characteristics of urban localities. Some forms of non-rural settlement, such as temporary mining locations, may be clearly non-rural, but have at best a questionable claim to be called a town. Towns often exist as distinct governmental units, with legally defined borders and some or all of
5005-614: The distant past. The city of Rattenberg for example has about 400 inhabitants. The city of Hardegg has about 1200 inhabitants. There are no unincorporated areas. Of the 201 cities in Austria, 15 are statutory cities ( Statutarstädte ). A statutory city is a city that is vested, in addition to its purview as a municipality, with the duties of a district administrative authority . The status does not come with any additional autonomy: district administrative authorities are essentially just service centers that citizens use to interact with
5096-461: The effects of coastal erosion . The historian Richard Hoggett has suggested that Felix's see was at Walton Castle , near Felixstowe , where a Roman fort once existed. According to Hoggett, "Walton Castle [was] a fitting site for the king's new bishopric and one which he was well within his rights to gift to Felix", being located near the Deben valley , where both the royal vill at Rendlesham and
5187-462: The entire train had blown up, the explosion caused substantial property damage. Gimbert and Nightall were both awarded the George Cross (Nightall posthumously ). A permanent memorial was unveiled on 2 June 2007 by Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester followed by a service in St Andrew's Church. The memorial is constructed of Portland stone with a bronze inlay depicting interpretive artwork of
5278-568: The establishment of the Fordham Road cemetery, in the late 1800s, burial remains were also found with several high-status grave goods , including a girdle hanger, beads and jewellery. These items are now housed in the British Museum . Further Bronze and Iron Age settlements and related activity has also been noted in the north of the town during recent development on the sites. Many Neolithic items have been found whilst field walking to
5369-573: The following criteria: St Felix of Burgundy Felix of Burgundy (died 8 March 647 or 648), also known as Felix of Dunwich , was the first bishop of the kingdom of the East Angles . He is widely credited as the man who introduced Christianity to the kingdom. Almost all that is known about him comes from the Ecclesiastical History of the English People , completed by the English historian Bede in about 731, and
5460-573: The girls on the school site. The caretaker's house in College Close where Huntley lived and, as admitted at his trial, where the girls died, was demolished in 2004. The A142 road from Ely to Newmarket runs past Soham, and formerly ran through the town. Soham is served by an hourly bus service Monday to Friday (the number 112, on a route linking Newmarket and Ely ) with a reduced service on Saturday. Following Stagecoach 's cancellation of route 12 on 30 October 2022, Stephenson of Essex took on
5551-421: The historical importance, the existence of central functions (education, retail etc.) and the population density of an urban place might also be taken as characteristics of a Stadt . The modern local government organisation is subject to the laws of each state and refers to a Gemeinde ( municipality ), regardless of its historic title. While most Gemeinden form part of a Landkreis ( district ) on
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#17327757702555642-400: The king. Cnut replied if the ice could hold Brethner's weight it would surely hold his. Thus the king and his retinue followed over the "bending and cracking ice" to Ely. Brethner, a serf, was set free by the king with some free lands for his good deed. But by 1813 the lake was no more: an agricultural study describes the area: On the east of the town, a black sandy moor, lying upon a gravel;
5733-473: The late 9th century—under the year 633. "Manuscript A" of the Chronicle states that Felix "preached the faith of Christ to the East Angles". Another version of the Chronicle , "Manuscript F", written in the 11th century in both Old English and Latin , elaborates upon the short statement contained in "Manuscript A": According to Bede, Felix was sent to promote Christianity in the land of the East Angles by
5824-682: The monks of Ely for the Feast of the Purification. This tale was elaborated as an 'Old English Novelet' in 1844, describing how King Cnut's nobles were concerned for his safety in crossing the Soham Mere ice. If the ice broke this would drown the king in the Fen waters. Cnut insisted on travelling (in a sledge) should there be a fenner to lead him across. One Brethner – an Ely fenner, named Budde or Pudding on account of his large size – elected to lead
5915-542: The name of their respective seats, and if they were not municipal seats, they would have the category of village. Bulgarians do not, in general, differentiate between 'city' and 'town'. However, in everyday language and media the terms "large towns" and "small towns" are in use. "Large towns" usually refers to Sofia , Plovdiv , Varna and Burgas , which have population over 200,000. Ruse and Stara Zagora are often included as well due to presence of relatively developed infrastructure and population over 100,000 threshold. It
6006-418: The national government, for example to apply for driver licenses or passports. The national government generally uses the provinces to run these points of contact on its behalf; in the case of statutory cities, the municipality gets to step up. In Brazil, since 1938, it was defined that the seat of the municipalities would pass to the category of city and give it the name and the districts would be designated by
6097-576: The place where ships used to load and unload [suggesting that] Soham was, before the drainage of the Fens, a seaport town, its chief trade being with King's Lynn. Quay Fen is sometimes found as 'Calf Fen'. Soham Mere is spoken of (1794) as the largest lake in England, next in order of size being Ramsay and Whittlesey Meres . Mere is the Anglo-Saxon for lake or marsh. Soham Mere finds mention in Liber Eliensis relating King Cnut's winter visit to
6188-472: The possibility that Felix, who was already consecrated as a bishop in Burgundy, may have become a political fugitive in Francia before his arrival in East Anglia. A bishop named Felix held the see of Châlons in 626 or 627, but was deprived of his see following the death of the Frankish king Chlothar II in 629. Felix is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle —a collection of annals compiled in
6279-476: The properties within the town. The United States Census identifies many census-designated places (CDPs) by the names of unincorporated towns which lie within them; however, those CDPs typically include rural and suburban areas and even surrounding villages and other towns. The distinction between a town and a city similarly depends on the approach: a city may strictly be an administrative entity which has been granted that designation by law, but in informal usage,
6370-417: The rank of town (e.g. Visegrád, Zalakaros or Gönc) and meeting the conditions of development is often disregarded to quickly elevate larger villages into towns. As of middle 2013, there are 346 towns in Hungary, encompassing some 69% of the entire population. Towns of more than 50,000 people are able to gain the status of megyei jogú város (town with the rights of a county ), which allows them to maintain
6461-418: The remainder a deep, rich black mould, lying upon a blue clay or gault or clunch. Pasture extensive of first quality; a large tract also of second quality. The Mere, formerly a lake, now drained and cultivated – and the soil a mixture of vegetable matter and brown clay, contains about fourteen hundred acres. St Felix of Burgundy , 'Apostle of the East Angles', founded Soham Abbey in Soham around 630 AD but it
6552-569: The route, renumbering it as route 112 to avoid clashing with its existing Newmarket to Cambridge route 12. Soham railway station closed to passengers in 1965, and reopened in December 2021. The line through Soham remained open for passenger and goods services between the Midlands and Ipswich , Harwich and Felixstowe . After local campaigns for its reopening, it was announced in June 2020 that
6643-515: The saint, all located in either North Yorkshire or East Anglia . Felix is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on 8 March. The Yorkshire village of Felixkirk and the town of Felixstowe may both have been named after the saint, though an alternative meaning for Felixstowe, "the stow of Filica", has been suggested. In the Catholic Church in England , Felix
6734-562: The same meaning as borough albeit deriving from a different etymology) and they retain the exclusive right to the title even after the last vestiges of their privileges vanished through the reform of the local administration carried through in 1970. In Estonia , there is no distinction between a town and a city as the word linn is used for both bigger and smaller settlements, which are bigger than villages and boroughs. There are 30 municipal towns ( omavalitsuslik linn ) in Estonia and
6825-430: The smallest level of local authorities are all called communes . They can have anywhere from a handful to millions of inhabitants, and France has 36,000 of them. The French term for town is bourg but French laws generally do not distinguish between towns and cities which are all commonly called villes . However, some laws do treat these authorities differently based on the population and different rules apply to
6916-421: The term is also used to denote an urban locality of a particular size or importance: whereas a medieval city may have possessed as few as 10,000 inhabitants, today some consider an urban place of fewer than 100,000 as a town, even though there are many officially designated cities that are much smaller than that. 193 countries have been involved in a common effort to agree on a common statistical definition of
7007-553: The text of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People can be taken to mean that Felix went to East Anglia because he was prompted to by Honorius. Soon after his arrival at Sigeberht's court, in about 630 or 631, Felix established his episcopal see at Dommoc, which is widely considered by scholars to have been Dunwich , Suffolk, a thriving town in the Middle Ages . Dunwich has since been destroyed by
7098-611: The three big cities Paris , Lyon and Marseille . For historical reasons, six communes in the Meuse département exist as independent administrative entities despite having no inhabitants at all. For statistical purposes, the national statistical institute ( INSEE ) operates a distinction between urban areas with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants and bigger communes, the latter being called villes . Smaller settlements are usually called villages . Germans do not, in general, differentiate between 'city' and 'town'. The German word for both
7189-455: The three categories: cities, towns and rural areas. Australian geographer Thomas Griffith Taylor proposed a classification of towns based on their age and pattern of land use . He identified five types of towns: Through different periods of recorded history, many towns have grown into sizeable settlements, with the development of properties, centres of culture, and specialized economies. Çatalhöyük , currently an archaeological site,
7280-694: The walls of a castle. In Australia, most rural and regional centres of population can be called towns; many small towns have populations of less than 200. The smallest may be described as townships. In addition, some local government entities are officially styled as towns in Queensland , South Australia , Western Australia and the Northern Territory , and formerly also (till the 1990s) in Victoria . The Austrian legal system does not distinguish between villages, towns, and cities. The country
7371-503: The wealthy, which had a high fence or a wall around them (like the garden of the palace of Het Loo in Apeldoorn , which was the model for the privy garden of William III and Mary II at Hampton Court ). In Old Norse tún means a (grassy) place between farmhouses, and the word is still used with a similar meaning in modern Norwegian. Old English tūn became a common place-name suffix in England and southeastern Scotland during
7462-617: The word χωριό ('village') to refer to smaller settlements and the word πόλη or πολιτεία ('city') to refer to larger ones. Careful speakers may also use the word κωμόπολη to refer to towns with a population of 2,000–9,999. In Greek administrative law there used to be a distinction between δήμοι , i.e. municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants or considered important for some other geographical (county seats), historical or ecclesiastical (bishops' seats) reason, and κοινότητες, referring to smaller self-governing units, mostly villages. A sweeping reform, carried out in two stages early in
7553-617: Was born on 11 April 1795 and was baptised in the parish church on 29 April 1795. William Case Morris (1864–1932) was born in Soham on 16 February 1864. He and his father left the town in search of a new life in 1872 after the death of his mother in 1868, finally settling in Argentina in 1874. Morris was horrified by the poverty of the street children, which led him to found several children's homes in Buenos Aires . Morris returned to Soham shortly before his death on 15 September 1932, and
7644-503: Was buried at Dommoc, but his relics were at a later date removed to Soham, according to the 12th-century English historian William of Malmesbury . His shrine was desecrated by the Vikings when the church was destroyed. According to William, some time later "the body of the saint was looked for and found, and buried at Ramsey Abbey ". Ramsey was noted for its enthusiasm for collecting saints' relics, and in an apparent attempt to get
7735-628: Was buried in the Fordham Road cemetery. He is commemorated with a statue in Palermo, Buenos Aires as well as railway stations, football stadia and a town, William C. Morris, Buenos Aires , named after him. His legacy lives on with the Biblioteca Popular William C. Morris and 'Hogar el Alba' children's homes located in Buenos Aires which help impoverished children. The town narrowly escaped destruction on 2 June 1944, during
7826-419: Was centred in Burgundy and was particularly associated with the Irish missionary Columbanus and Luxeuil Abbey . Columbanus had arrived in Francia in about 590, after going into voluntary exile. A few years later he founded the monastery at Luxeuil. At this time, associations existed between the kingdoms of Francia and East Anglia , a small independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom that mainly comprised what are now
7917-498: Was considered to be the oldest inhabited town, or proto-city , that existed from around 7500 BC. Inscribed as a World Heritage Site , it remains a depopulated town with a complex of ruins. In Roman times , a villa was a rural settlement formed by a main residential building and another series of secondary buildings. It constituted the center from which an agricultural holding was administered. Subsequently, it lost its agricultural functions and reduced its activity to residential. With
8008-523: Was destroyed by the Danes in 870 AD. Luttingus, an Anglo-Saxon nobleman, built a cathedral and palace at Soham around 900 AD, on the site of the present-day Church of St Andrew and adjacent land. St Andrew's Church dates from the 12th century. Traces of the Saxon cathedral are said to still exist within the church. In 1102 Hubert de Burgh , Chief Justice of England, granted 'Ranulph' certain lands in trust for
8099-544: Was intended to be self-reliant, but was not successful and turned into a bedroom community like the other new towns. More recent developments are Tin Shui Wai and North Lantau (Tung Chung-Tai Ho) . In Hungary there is no official distinction between a city and a town (the word for both in Hungarian is város ). Nevertheless, the expressions formed by adding the adjectives kis ('small') and nagy ('large') to
8190-420: Was the original founder of the old monastery of Sehem and of the church at Redham". According to the historian Margaret Gallyon, the large size of the East Anglian diocese would have made the foundation of a second religious establishment at Soham "appear very probable". Bede praised Felix, writing that he had freed "the whole of this kingdom from long-standing evil and unhappiness". During his years as bishop,
8281-520: Was venerated as a saint ; several English churches are dedicated to him. Felix's feast date is 8 March. Felix was born in the Frankish kingdom of Burgundy , although his name prevents historians from conclusively identifying his nationality. According to the English historian Bede , he was ordained in Burgundy. The historian Peter Hunter Blair suggested it is possible that Felix was associated with Irish missionary activity in Francia , which
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