Thomissøn's hymnal was a hymnal published in Denmark that received royal authorization in 1569. The hymnal's original full title was Den danske Psalmebog, met mange Christelige Psalmer, Ordentlig tilsammenset, formeret oc forbedret. Aff Hans Thomissøn; the book was published by Lorenz Benedict in Copenhagen in 1569. Thomissøn's hymnal was the only hymnal allowed in Denmark–Norway after it received royal authorization. After this, churches were required to have it lying on their altars. Hans Thomissøn was the country's leading hymnologist and he translated many of the hymns from German into Danish, he began his work on the hymnal, which took him twelve years, before he became the parish priest at the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen in 1561. The work was the most important Reformation-era hymnal. Melodies to accompany Thomissøn's hymnal were printed in 1573 in Niels Jespersen's gradual; the hymnal contains 269 hymns, many of which are still known today, such as: "Alene Gud i himmerik" "Krist stod opp av døde" "Vår Gud han er så fast en borg" "Et lite barn så lystelig" "La det klinge sødt i sky" "Julen har englelyd" "Lovet være du Jesus Krist" "Nå ber vi Gud den Helligånd" "Av dypest' nød" "Min sjel, nu lover Herren" "O du Guds lam uskyldig" Facsimile of Thomissøn's hymnal Digital edition of Thomissøn's hymnal

The Bristol and Gloucester Railway was a railway company opened in 1844 between the cities in its name. It was built on the 7 ft Brunel gauge, but it was acquired in 1845 by the 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in standard gauge Midland Railway, which acquired the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway at the same time. Legal and practical difficulties meant that it was some time before through standard gauge trains could run on the line; the station at Gloucester was awkwardly sited, until in 1896 a through station was opened. The Tuffley Loop and Eastgate station were closed in 1975. Part of the original line near Bristol was closed in 1970, trains being diverted over the ex-Great Western Railway route through Filton. However, the remainder of the route is in service as part of the busy Bristol to Birmingham main line. In 1809 the Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway was authorised. In reality it was to be a horse-operated plateway. Cheltenham was growing in importance because of the health-giving properties of the waters, houses for well-to-do residents were being built, requiring the bringing in of stone for the building work and for roads, coal for the residents.

There were good-quality quarries in existence at Leckhampton, high above the town, Forest of Dean coal was available at Gloucester, nine miles away, brought there on the River Severn and by canal. The Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway was built to serve these needs, by connecting the docks at Gloucester and the Leckhampton quarries, with Cheltenham; the G&CR was completed in 1811. Although alternatively referred to as a railway, railroad, or tramway, it was in fact a horse-operated plateway of 3 ft 6 in gauge. A steam locomotive was tried out, but the experiment was a failure because the locomotive was too heavy for the tramplates and broke them. In June 1828 two companies were incorporated by Act of Parliament to build tramways to bring coal from collieries at Shortwood and Coalpit Heath, to the north-east of Bristol, into Bristol itself. One of the companies was the Bristol and Gloucestershire Railway, to terminate in Bristol at Cuckold's Pill on the Floating Harbour; the second was the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway, whose terminal was on the River Avon opposite Keynsham, from where river boats would continue the journey.

The two lines were to make a junction north of Mangotsfield, near the Mangotsfield North Junction. The lines were made with cast iron fish-bellied edge rails on stone blocks, had a track gauge of 4 ft 8 in; the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway was opened in July 1832 together with the part of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Railway north of the point of junction. The south-western part of the Bristol line was opened on 6 August 1835. In 1835 the Great Western Railway was incorporated; the engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the line was to be built on the broad gauge and it would use locomotive power. The line was opened progressively, but the portion in Bristol was opened on 31 August 1840, the line opened throughout from London to Bristol on 30 June 1841. In the 1836 session of Parliament, interests in Birmingham were promoting the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, it obtained its authorising Act of Parliament on 22 April 1836. Before the Great Western Railway had been authorised, people in Cheltenham had determined to promote a line from Cheltenham through Gloucester and Stroud to join the planned Great Western Railway near Swindon.

It was passed on 21 June 1836. The proposed alignment of these two proposed lines was identical between Gloucester and Cheltenham. Moreover, both companies proposed to acquire the Cheltenham Railway; the Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway was purchased for £35,000 by the Birmingham and Gloucester company, which had got its authorising Act first, but by agreement the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway Act set up a sharing of the construction of the new main line between Gloucester and Cheltenham, with the B&GR building the Gloucester station and the C&GWUR the Cheltenham station, both companies being able to use both stations, to share in the use of the tramroad. The Gloucester to Cheltenham main line was to be built in two halves by the respective companies, each having running powers over the other half, it would be built on the standard gauge, but the C&GWUR could lay additional rails at its own expense to enable its broad gauge trains to operate. In November 1837 the C&GWUR reported that the condition of the money market was such that they were going to be unable to build all of their line in the foreseeable future, that they proposed to concentrate on the Swindon end.

The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway were alarmed by this as they relied on the C&GWUR to build part of the shared Gloucester to Cheltenham line. The C&GWUR needed a Parliamentary Act and the Birmingham company secured clauses enabling them to build the relevant portion themselves if the C&GWUR did not proceed with the construction in a timely way; this motivated the C&GWUR to alter its priorities and it let contracts for construc