Dorchester has missed out in its bid to become a city.

The county town was one of 26 towns that applied for the granting of city status as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Bournemouth also missed out as it was announced that Chelmsford in Essex, Perth in Scotland and St Asaph in Wales were to be given the honours.

Armagh in Northern Ireland was granted a lord mayoralty. In a recent survey carried out by government polling service You-Gov, Dorchester was chosen by six per cent of those questioned as the town most deserving of city status.

The application for city status was put forward by Dorchester Town Council last year.

County town mayor Tess James said: “I think it was definitely worth giving it a try and it just means we still have one of the best county towns in the country.”

Town crier Alistair Chisholm added: “I’m very pleased for Chelmsford and I’m absolutely certain that we would have been an incredibly close runner-up. I think it was a very useful exercise.

“We must have ticked a lot of the boxes to even be in with a chance of being considered.”