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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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Woolwich
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(London SE18) Ancient town downstream of London on the south bank of the Thames. Its economic importance derived from 1512 when *Henry VIII established a royal dockyard here to build the *Great Harry. The dockyard closed in 1869, but Woolwich by then had another identity as a military town. The Woolwich Arsenal was Britain's chief arms factory in the 18C; it developed into the *Royal Ordnance, now privatized as a division of British Aerospace. The Royal Military Academy, part of the Arsenal from 1741, moved to *Sandhurst in 1946. The fame of the *Arsenal lives on in the football club founded in Woolwich in 1886.
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