Dunstable (pop. 48,400), at the foot of Dunstable Downs, 3.5mi/6km from Whipsnade, makes a very worthwhile excursion. Dunstable Downs is popular with kite flyers and hang gliders. The church of St Peter and St Paul originally belonged to an abbey founded in 1131 and has a Norman nave; the ornate northwest porch dates from the 13th century. It
was here in 1533 that Archbishop Cranmer granted Henry VIII his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, foreshadowing legislation in 1534 installing Henry as the supreme head of an independent Anglican Church.
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