St Asaph, a little cathedral city of Flintshire, North Wales, on an eminence between the rivers Elwy and Clwyd, 6 miles SSE. of Rhyl. The cathedral, 182 feet long, is the smallest in the kingdom, and, rebuilt after 1284, is a plain, cruciform, red sandstone structure, mainly decorated in style, with a massive central tower 93 feet high, fine oak stalls, and a tablet to Mrs Hemans, who lived here 1809-28. It was restored by Scott in 1867-75. St Kentigern (q.v.) is said to have founded about 560 a bishopric at Llanellwy, renamed St Asaph after his favourite disciple. Among sixty-five bishops since 1143 have been Reginald Pecock; W. Morgan, the first translator of the Bible into Welsh; Isaac Barrow the elder, on whose monument is a request for prayers for his soul; W. Lloyd, one of the Seven Bishops; Thomas Tanner; and S. Horsley. St Asaph has a grammar-school, founded about 1600, and rebuilt in 1882. It is one of the eight Flint parliamentary boroughs. Pop. 1901.
See works by Browne Willis (1719), E. A. Freeman (1850), R. J. King (Murray's Welsh Cathedrals, 1873), and D. R. Thomas ('Diocesan Histories' series, 1883).