The story of Bristol Cathedral began not with a king but with a merchant: in 1140 Robert Fitzharding founded an Augustinian abbey here. It was only in 1542 that Henry VIII granted the building cathedral status. A rare case of a civic project growing into a religious symbol.
Incidentally, among the stone carvings here you can find a unique cast of characters — a monkey with a pipe, a ram with a fiddle, and a face with leaves sprouting out of it.