St David's

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This page is about the city. For the patron saint of Wales, see Saint David.

St David's Tyddewi


Population	1,797 (2001 census^[1])
OS grid reference	SM755255
Principal area	Pembrokeshire
Ceremonial county	Dyfed
Constituent country	Wales
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	HAVERFORDWEST
Postcode district	SA62
Dial code	01437
Police	Dyfed-Powys
Fire	Mid and West Wales
Ambulance	Wales
UK Parliament	Preseli Pembrokeshire
European Parliament	Wales
List of places: UK • Wales • Pembrokeshire

St David's (Welsh: Tyddewi) is the smallest city in the United Kingdom, with a population of under 2,000 people. It lies on the River Alun, on Saint David's peninsula in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

St David's Cathedral

The city is built around St David's Cathedral, which in the Middle Ages was a popular place of pilgrimage. Next to it, the fourteenth century Bishop's Palace is a ruin now in the care of Cadw and open to visitors. It was once a marcher borough. Owen, in 1603, described it as one of five Pembrokeshire boroughs overseen by a portreeve.^[2]

Tradition states that Saint David was born to Saint Non at what is now St Non's, a ten minute walk south of the city, in about 500. It is also said that he was baptised at Porthclais, now the city's port, and that he founded the city in around 550. Legend says that two pilgrimages to St David's are equal to a pilgrimage to the Vatican in Rome. Saint Non's Well overlooks the Pembrokeshire Coast Path and St. Bride's Bay. The dramatic Cambrian cliffs make this a popular spot for walkers and sea-kayakers.

Other than the cathedral, attractions in the city include the thirteenth century Tower Gate, the Celtic Old Cross and a number of good art galleries. St David's is also a popular base for walking and water sports. It has several hotels and a youth hostel, and a number of pubs, including The Farmer's Arms.

St David's is the only city in the United Kingdom to lie entirely in a national park, the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, and it lies near the Pembrokeshire Coast Path.

St David's hosted the National Eisteddfod in 2002.

The St David's lifeboat, located at St Justinian, has saved numerous lives since the first lifeboat was located there in 1869. Indeed a number of heroic lifeboatmen have lost theirs in pursuit of saving others. The dangers are due in the main to the treacherous reefs and formations off the coast together with the unpredictable Irish Sea conditions.^{[citation needed]}

The entire coastline around St Davids forms part of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

Local agriculture has declined in recent years, with the once buoyant crop of Pembrokeshire first early new potatoes having largely died out due to pressure from the supermarkets.^{[citation needed]}

1 People from St Davids
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] People from St Davids

Henry Hicks (born 1837-died 1899), a Welsh physician, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS), President of the Geological Society and Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). He studied the Precambrian rocks of Anglesey, Caernarvonshire and Pembrokeshire, the Devonian rocks of Devon and Somerset, and cave deposits in Denbighshire. He was born on the 26th of May 1837 at St Davids, followed in the footsteps of his father Thomas Hicks and studied medicine at Guy's Hospital, and then practised in St Davids from 1862 until 1871.