Manchester Cathedral is a Medieval church located on Victoria Street in central Manchester. The cathedral's official name is The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George in Manchester.

Although constructed over a period of 600 years, its main architectural style is Perpendicular Gothic, replete with tall windows and flat fan-vaulted ceilings. The interior of the church contains many pieces of period art, notably the medieval woodcarvings of the Ripon Carvers .

The Cathedrals current Dean, as of 2005, is the Very Reverend Kenneth J Riley . Services are currently held daily at 7.45am (Morning Prayer), 8.00am (Holy Communion), and 5:30pm (Evensong).

History

The first recorded Christian church in Manchester was built in the 7th century. After this was destroyed by the invading Danes, King Edward the Elder ordered the building of a new church near the earlier site in 923. This church was recorded in the Doomsday book as St. Mary's.

Work on the current building began in 1215 within the confines of the Baron's Court beside Manor House. The occupying Lords of the Manor were the Grisley family and their coat of arms is still associated with the Catheral to this day. The Grisley family acted as stewards of the church, building and endowing the first chancery, the St. Nicholas Chancery.

In 1311 the succession of the Grisley family ended, and the estate passed by marriage to the de la Warre family . Between 1330 and 1360 the ornately carved entrance to the Lady Chapel and its former tower were contructed. In 1349 the St. Nicholas Chancery was endowed by the de Trafford family . The involvement of the de la Warre family was furthered in 1382 when Thomas de la Warre, later to be appointed Baron of Manchester , became Rector of the parish church.

King King Henry V chartered the church as a collegiate foundation in 1421 and it has had close ties with education ever since.

The church was expanded many times over the following centuries by various town notables, and had its treasures plundered several times (notably by Edward VI in 1550 and during the English Civil War in 1649).

In 1847, the Diocese of Manchester was created, and the church was named its cathedral. Some extensive rebuilding and refacing also took place during the 1800s, so that the buildings do not look as old as other buildings of comparable antiquity.

During World War II, a German bomb severely damaged the cathedral; it took nearly twenty years to repair all of the destruction.

The building was again damaged by an Irish Republican Army bomb in 1996.

The cathedral houses extensive parish and historical archives, dating back to 1421. In 2003, a project began to provide an exhaustive catalog of the archive's contents to the public.

External links

• Manchester Cathedral website
• A timeline of the Cathedral's history
• A plan of the Cathedral