The woman's energy before crossing a cathedral city (8)
I believe the answer is:
hereford
'a cathedral city' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'the woman's energy before crossing' is the wordplay.
'the woman's' becomes 'her'.
'energy' becomes 'e' (physics symbol as in E=mco).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'crossing' becomes 'ford' (ford is a kind of crossing**).
'her'+'e'+'ford'='HEREFORD'
(Other definitions for hereford that I've seen before include "town" , "City on the River Wye - cattle breed" , "hardy breed" , "Red and white cattle breed" , "cow!)" .)