Ipswich is actually a town, not a city – as evidenced in the name of its football club.
When I pointed this out on the night, someone remarked that the name of a football club is not always a reliable indicator of its status. Asked to elucidate, my colleague cited Elgin City FC.
This is indeed an interesting case, and it highlights the fact that "city status" did not historically have the same meaning in Scotland as in England.
Wikipedia has a page entitled City status in the United Kingdom. This page is noticeably short on reference citations, so should perhaps not be regarded as definitive. However, as we are using it for illustration only:
Wikipedia names Rochester and Elgin as "the only two former cities in the United Kingdom." Further down the page, when explaining the history of cities in Scotland, it tells us that "Scotland had no cities by royal charter or letters patent before 1889 ... Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh were accepted as cities by ancient usage by the 18th century, while Perth and Elgin also used the title." Then in the next paragraph: "In 1969, the Home Secretary, James Callaghan, stated that there were six cities in Scotland (without naming them) and Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Elgin, Glasgow and Perth were the only burghs listed as cities in 1972."
In 1975, local government in Scotland was completely reorganised (following a similar revision in England and Wales the previous year). "All burghs were abolished, and a system of districts created." Only four districts had the word 'City' included in their names: Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow. Elgin, along with Perth, lost any official claim to city status at this point.
Under the heading Cathedral Towns (subheading Scotland), Wikipedia notes that "the Church of Scotland is presbyterian in governance (not recognising authority of bishops), and thus has high kirks rather than cathedrals ... both Perth and Elgin were recognised as cities before 1975 (Perth's city status was restored in 2012). Additionally, five other pre–Reformation sees – Brechin, Dunblane, Dunkeld, Kirkwall and St Andrews – are often referred to as cities, notably in names associated with the settlements (e.g. Brechin City F.C. ..."
In the next section, Claimants, Wikipedia notes that "The community council for Elgin is called City and Royal Burgh of Elgin Community Council. The local football team is known as Elgin City F.C.." (Thus it classifies Elgin as a 'claimant' to city status – along with the likes of Ballymena, Dunfermline, Dunkeld, and Colchester.)
A football club can call itself anything it likes (AFAIK), and given the history, I have absolutely no problem with the Elgin club claiming City status. But I don't know of any football club that defies convention in the opposite direction – calling itself the Town when it's based in a city.
The club we know as Ipswich Town was formed in 1878 as Ipswich Association FC, and changed its name to Ipswich Town ten years later. I know of only one club that's changed its name from Town to City (and none that have gone the other way): Swansea Town became Swansea City in 1970 – the town having gained city status in the previous year.
© Macclesfield Quiz League 2019