Bristol

Bristol grew up around the meeting of the Frome and the Avon, beside Bristol Bridge, just outside the town walls; a stone bridge replaced the earlier crossing in 1247. It received a royal charter in 1155 and in 1373 Edward III made it a county in its own right, with a boundary that ran out into the Severn estuary. From the 13th century to the 18th Bristol ranked with London among the top three English cities for tax receipts. In the 15th century it was the country's second port, trading with Ireland, Iceland and Gascony.

In 1497 the Venetian John Cabot sailed from the port and made landfall in North America. In 1542 the former Abbey of St Augustine became Bristol Cathedral and the town became a city. Bristol fishermen settled Newfoundland in the 17th century, and the city's ships took part in the Atlantic trade, including the transport of enslaved Africans. John Wesley founded the first Methodist chapel, the New Room, there in 1739, and by 1750 the population reached 45,000.