for red trout, runs by the side of the town, falling into the Trent,
at about three miles distance.

The most ancient part of the church is of the order usually called
Saxon, and from tradition is said to have been built in the time of
Harold, predecessor of William I. But there is no history or written
instrument of any kind now extant, concerning the origin of this
structure. The two side aisles are of pure Norman architecture.
The choir was built in the reign of Edward III. as appears by a license
of the eleventh year of that king's reign, to the chapter, to get
stones from a quarry in Shirewood Forest for building the choir. The
chapter-house is a detached building, connected by a cloister with
the north aisle of the choir, and is on the model of that at York.
The arch of entrance from the aisle, is said to exceed in elegance and
correctness of execution, almost every thing of the kind in the kingdom;
the chapter-house is of Gothic architecture, and the arch forming the
approach is considered of modern insertion, the sculpture being finer
and more delicate than any thing near it. This church and Ripon are
said to be the only parochial, as well as collegiate, churches now in
England, the rest having been dissolved by Henry VIII. or his
successors.

At the Reformation, its chantries were dissolved, and the order of
priests expelled about the year 1536. In 1542, Lee, then Archbishop
of York, granted, by indenture to the king, the manor of Southwell.
In the thirty-fourth year of his reign, Henry VIII., by act of
parliament, declared Southwell the head and mother church of the town
and county of Nottingham, and soon afterwards re-founded and re-endowed
it, probably at the instance of Cranmer, at that time in the height of
favour, who was a native of Nottinghamshire, not far from Southwell.