Beverley, town, East Riding of
Yorkshire, NE England. Beverley is primarily a market town with some
shipbuilding and such light industries as the manufacture of railroad and
automobile accessories and leather. The famous large minster, or monastery
church (13th cent.), was attached to a monastery founded by St. John of
Beverley (d. 721) and transformed by Athelstan into a college of canons. It
contains the tomb of the Percy family and the ancient “chair of
peace,” which gave sanctuary from the laws of man. (The sanctuary, a
privilege granted by Athelstan, applied in a 1-mi (1.6-km) radius around the
minster; it was ended at the time of the Reformation.) The town gate is of
the early 15th cent., and St. Mary's Church dates from the 14th cent.
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