Manchester Cathedral

Manchester Cathedral
Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George
Manchester, Lancashire
Status:	cathedral
Manchester Cathedral
	Church of England
	Diocese of Manchester
Location
History
	Built 1421–1882
	Perpendicular Gothic
Information
Website:	manchestercathedral.org

The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George, commonly known as Manchester Cathedral is the cathedral of the Diocese of Manchester in the Church of England. It stands in Manchester, in Lancashire. It is both the seat of the Bishop of Manchester and the city's parish church. It is located on Victoria Street in the city centre.

The church is also known as the College of Christ in Manchester founded by King Charles.

The main body of the cathedral largely derives from the wardenship of James Stanley (warden 1485–1506), and is in the Perpendicular Gothic style. Stanley was primarily responsible for commissioning the late-mediæval wooden furnishings, including the pulpitum, choir stalls and the nave roof which is supported by angels with gilded instruments. The mediæval church was extensively refaced, restored and extended in the Victorian period, and again following bomb damage in the 20th century. The cathedral is one of fifteen Grade I listed buildings in Manchester.

History

Origins

In 1215 a church was built between the Rivers Irk and Irwell and an ancient watercourse crossed by the Hanging Bridge started in 1215 within the confines of the Baron's Court beside the manor house on the site of Manchester Castle. The lords of the manor were the Grelleys whose coat of arms is still associated with the cathedral. The Grelleys acted as stewards, building and endowing the first chancery, the St Nicholas Chancery. In 1311, the Grelley estate passed by marriage to the de la Warres. In 1349 the St Nicholas Chancery was endowed by the de Traffords. In 1382 Thomas de la Warre, became its rector.

The church had a six-bay aisled nave and six-bay chancel with aisles and a west tower in the perpendicular style of the late-mediæval period.

Collegiate church

In 1421 Thomas de la Warre, Baron de la Warre was granted a licence from King Henry V and the Pope to establish a collegiate church in Manchester in 1421. The college was established by royal charter, with a warden, eight fellows, four singing clerks and eight choristers. The parish church was dedicated to St Mary and to that dedication were added St George, the patron saint of England, and St Denys, the patron saint of France, perhaps reflecting de la Warre's French heritage, or Henry V's claim to the French throne. The college of priests was housed in new buildings on the site of the former manor house that survive as Chetham's Library paid for by de la Warre. He appointed John Huntingdon as the college's first warden who, between 1422 and 1458, rebuilt the eastern arm of the parish church to provide the collegiate choir. Huntington is commemorated in a rebus, carvings of a man hunting and a man with a tun (barrel of ale), on either side of the arch accessing the Lady Chapel. The church's 14th-century west tower and Lady Chapel were incorporated into the current structure although little or no fabric of that date is still visible.

The nave supported by angel minstrels

Traditionally the third warden, Ralph Langley (1465–1481), is credited with rebuilding the nave but the nave and choir were substantially reconstructed again by James Stanley a few years later, when he raised the clerestory and provided the richly decorated timber roofs and choir stalls. His stepmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort was mother of Henry VII and through their alliance with the Tudor dynasty the Stanley's acquired fabulous wealth and access to architects and craftsmen working on royal commissions. On stylistic grounds, the arcades and clerestory of the cathedral are attributed to John Wastell, the architect for the completion of Kings College Chapel. The choir stalls, carved at the workshop of William Brownflet of Ripon, are the finest of a series which includes the surviving stalls at Ripon Cathedral, Beverley Minster and Bridlington Priory. The carving of the misericord seats is exceptionally fine. James Stanley was responsible for the embellishment of the nave roof with supports in the form of fourteen life-size angel minstrels, each playing a different late-mediæval instrument; and for the endowment of his own chantry chapel (now destroyed) at the north-east corner, in which he was buried in 1515.

In the early 16th century an almost complete sequence of chantry chapels was constructed along the north and south sides of the church creating a double aisle around the parochial nave, which is consequently much wider than it is long. Manchester is commonly claimed to have the widest nave of any cathedral in England.

Reformation

The college was dissolved in 1547 in the reign of Edward VI by the Chantries Act, but refounded by his sister Mary. Its future was uncertain when Elizabeth I succeeded in 1559, but was assured when she granted a new charter in 1578, allowing a warden, four fellows, two chaplains, four singing men and four choristers. The dedication of the college (but not the church) was changed to the college of Christ. Manchester and Southwell Minster were the only two mediæval collegiate foundations where daily choral worship was maintained after the Reformation until they were joined by Ripon when its collegiate foundation was restored in 1607.

The present charter, the fourth, was granted by King Charles I preserving the dedication of the college to Christ.

Cathedral

Manchester Cathedral in 1903

Detail of modern stained glass in the cathedral

A view of the nave inside Manchester Cathedral

Under the Cathedrals Act of 1840, the warden and fellows of the collegiate church were translated into a dean and canons in preparation for becoming the cathedral of the new Manchester Diocese which came into effect in 1847. The building was extensively renovated in 1882.

During the Manchester Blitz in 1940, a German bomb severely damaged the cathedral demolishing the mediæval lady chapel and James Stanley's chantry chapel. It took almost 20 years to complete the repairs, in the course of which the Guy Chapel was rebuilt to the designs of Hubert Worthington. The cathedral was again damaged in the IRA bombing in June 1996.

The cathedral houses extensive parish and historical archives, dating back to 1421. In 2003, a project began to provide an exhaustive catalogue of the archive's contents to the public. The cathedral was granted Grade I listed building status in January 1952. Grade I structures are considered to be "buildings of exceptional interest".

Architecture

The cathedral is constructed of two types of stone. The dark brown sandstone walls are of Collyhurst sandstone formed in the early Permian period and its floors of limestone from the Peak District which contains crinoid fossils.

Restorations

By the 1840s the external and internal stonework was in a poor state, partly due to the poor weathering qualities of the Collyhurst sandstone, but also because of an ill-advised attempt to lighten the interior by coating the internal surfaces of the nave with Roman cement by John Palmer. The external stonework was replaced between 1850 and 1870 in a restoration by J. S. Crowther, who also replaced the internal stonework of the nave walls and arcades. The west tower was heightened in 1868 by J.P. Holden, who also replaced its external stonework. Basil Champneys added the vestry and porches in 1898. Consequently, the cathedral gives the impression of being a 19th-century structure.

To accommodate upgrading work on the cathedral's heating system, in 2013 a temporary wooden cathedral was built on Victoria Street to allow worship to take place.

Visitor centre

The visitor centre by the cathedral's south porch costing £3 million was opened by Queen Elizabeth II. It has a shop and an exhibition room. The main attraction is the 15th-century Hanging Bridge, a scheduled monument, that was once the main approach to the church but was buried for more than 100 years.

Events

Manchester Grammar School's Founders' Day Service is held annually in the cathedral. Before moving to Fallowfield in the 1930s, the school occupied the building now used by Chetham's School of Music.

Since 2000, the cathedral has sponsored the International Religious Poetry Competition. Judges have included Michael Schmidt, Michael Symmons Roberts and Linda Chase. In 2010 the cathedral re-established its Young Poets' Competition, a national competition open to all schools and all children from Key Stage 1-5. On 23 January 2010, the cathedral announced the appointment of its first Poet-in-Residence, Rachel Mann [1]. Rachel Mann is also Priest-in-Charge of the Church of St Nicholas, Manchester.

On 21 October 2010, the cathedral hosted the inaugural Manchester Sermon. Developed in collaboration with the Manchester Literature Festival, the event was aimed at revitalising the sermon as a literary form. The inaugural sermon was delivered by the internationally known novelist Jeanette Winterson.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Manchester Cathedral)

• Manchester Cathedral website
• A plan of the Cathedral
• The Cathedral Church of Manchester by Thomas Perkins

References

• Hartwell, Clare (2002), Manchester, Pevsner Architectural Guides, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-09666-8 
• Hylton, Stuart (2003), A History of Manchester, Phillimore and Co, ISBN 1-86077-240-4 
• Kidd, Alan (2008), Manchester: A History, Carnegie Publishing, ISBN 1-85936-128-5 
• Scott, J. J. (1915), "Manchester Cathedral" in Manchester in 1915, Manchester University Press 
• Shanks, Andrew (2010), Manchester Cathedral: The old church of the world's first great industrial city, Scala Publishers, ISBN 978-1-85759-658-8