SOUTHWELL  , a

cathedral city in the Newark parliamentary division of Nottinghamshire, England, 16 m . N.E. of Nottingham by a branch of the Midland railway . Pop . (1901), 3161 . The n:inster church of St Mary became a cathedral on the foundation of the episcopal see in 1884 . The see covers the greater part of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, with small portions of Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Staffordshire . The foundation of the earliest church here is attributed to the missionary Paulinus in the first half of the 7th century . Another followed, after the devastations of the Northmen, in 960, on the foundation of King Edgar . The building of the present church began in the reign of Henry I . Henry VIII., after the dissolution of the monasteries, contemplated the erection of the church into a cathedral . The cathedral is a magnificent cruciform building, 306 ft. in length, with massive Norman nave (61 ft. wide), transepts, central and two western towers; and Early English choir with transepts . There is an octagonal chapter house, resembling that at York, exhibiting the Decorated style in highest development .

It is connected with the church by a

cloister . The archbishops of York had a palace here dating from the 15th century . The "great chamber " was restored in 1882, and since 1904 the building has been converted into a residence for the bishops of Southwell . The erection of the church at Southwell (Sudwelle, Suwell, Suthwell), probably the cause of the origin of the town, is attributed to the archbishop of York in the 7th century . In 958 land at Southwell was granted to the archbishop by Edwy . A detailed description of the great manor is given in Domesday . Southwell remained under the lordship of the see of York until it was taken over by the ecclesiastical commissioners . It was called a borough in the 13th century and down to the 17th, but no charter of incorporation is known . The town never returned representatives to parliament . In the reign of Edward I. the archbishop claimed by prescriptive right a five-days' fair at Pentecost, a three-days' fair at the translation of St Thomas and a Saturday market . Fairs are now held in April and December . The market was still held on Saturdays in 1894, but was then very small .