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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Southwell
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(7000 in 1991) Town in Nottinghamshire with a medieval cathedral, known like its original parent house in York as the minster. There was a church on the site from the 8C. The earliest part of the present building is the Norman west front of c.1140, unique in having its twin towers surmounted by square and sharply pointed roofs, known as the 'Rhenish caps' because reminiscent of the style of the Rhineland. The Norman nave leads into an *Early English chancel of the mid-13C, but the great glory of the minster is the sculpture in the late 13C chapter house; the columns are entwined with wonderfully naturalistic stone foliage, the 'leaves of Southwell'. This had always been the chief church of Nottinghamshire, but it only became a cathedral with the creation of a new diocese in 1884. Southwell's other claim to fame is as the home of the *Bramley seedling.
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