2-357-783 - The London Archives (City of London)/Heritage Images

St Albans Cathedral, Hertfordshire, c1830. The great medieval abbey church of St Albans developed on the site of the shrine to St Alban, who died in 209 and was one of the earliest Christian martyrs. The church was bought by the townspeople of St Albans in 1553 to serve as their parish church after the abbey was closed by the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It gained cathedral status when St Albans was granted its City Charter in 1877. The building has the longest nave of any British cathedral.