Almost the richest city of all in the country with a harbour for a thousand ships may well be an exaggerated description of Bristol by the writer Gesta Stephani but it sums up the twelfth-century view of the city as second to London in status with an important international port, producing wealth that directly influenced the art and architecture of the city throughout the Middle Ages.
Bristol, according to Sir Nikolaus Pevsner 'shortly before 1300suddenly jumped onto the front rank of English and indeed European architecture', with the early eastern arm of the abbey church being...

Almost the richest city of all in the country with a harbour for a thousand ships may well be an exaggerated description of Bristol by the writer Gesta Stephani but it sums up the twelfth-century view of the city as second to London in status with an important international port, producing wealth that directly influenced the art and architecture of the city throughout the Middle Ages.
Bristol, according to Sir Nikolaus Pevsner 'shortly before 1300suddenly jumped onto the front rank of English and indeed European architecture', with the early eastern arm of the abbey church being...