What makes a village a village and a town a town?

[janaage]

It's not a joke, I'm looking for a definitive answer people.

Is it down to amenties, population, councils (parish/town) etc?

[Samdy Gray]

A village should not have a regular agricultural market, although today such markets are uncommon even in settlements which clearly are towns.
A village does not have a town hall nor a mayor.
There should also be a clear green belt or open fields surrounding its parish borders.

[Sussex]

A village only has one idiot?

[janaage]

Excellent, didn't think of the town hall and mayor issue!

Cheers mate.

[Batch]

Wikkipedia in seemingly accurate and interesting shocker:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town#United_Kingdom

[Power to people]

Donsen't a City have the have a Uni or Cathedral to be called a City...hence why they want a Uni in Swindon ?

[Bogus Dave]

That was only in the olden days i think, dont think that will matter so much nowadays. I wouldn't want to be a city anyway, i kind of like the thought of swindon being one of the biggest towns in the world.

[Reg Smeeton]

Historically a town had to have a charter granted by the crown,  usually for the purposes of a market...hence Fairford is a town but Lechlade a village.

[janaage]

This sounds a little bit of a hollow achievement though Dave as many governments don't make a difference between a town and a city in foreign lands.

My source for this is a little shoddy (as it's Wikipedia).

[pauld]

Donsen't a City have the have a Uni or Cathedral to be called a City...hence why they want a Uni in Swindon ?

Not any more, now it just has to be granted City status by the govt. They did the last round of City creation a couple of years back - Swindon put in for it but lost out to Wantage or somewhere. Having a Uni probably helps but its not a requirement and is only one of a range of facilities they consider.