English city and seaport, and the county town of Avon, with a population of c. 400,000. Sited near the junction of the River Avon and the River Frome, the city subsequently developed around a bridge over the Avon c. 10 km from the estuary of the River Severn. The accessibility of Bristol’s port to the Midlands, south-west England, and Wales encouraged the city’s development, and the rivers and docks mean that water and reflections play an important part in its appearance. Bristol has access to abundant supplies of building stone, favouring Dundry stone, Pennant sandstone, and Dolomitic Conglomerate, but from the 18th century onwards brick has been widely used. Diversions of the courses of the Frome (c. 1247) and the Avon (1804–9) freed land for building and improved the river harbour. Bristol enjoyed particular prosperity in the 14th century as a centre for the manufacture and export of woollen cloth and again in the 18th century, when it became a leading centre of porcelain, pottery, metalwork, and glass production (...