Manchester Cathedral

Manchester Cathedral stands in the centre of Manchester on Victoria Street. It is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Manchester and the seat of the Bishop of Manchester. The building is a Grade I listed structure and has been a parish church since the 13th century. The cathedral’s origins go back to an earlier church, possibly Anglo-Saxon, marked by the Angel Stone in the south porch. The present structure was rebuilt in the Perpendicular Gothic style after 1421 and further extended in the 19th century and after the Second World War. The cathedral contains fine examples of late-medieval woodwork commissioned by James Stanley II in the late 15th century. His stepmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, connected the Stanley family to the Tudor court and brought skilled craftsmen to Manchester. The choir stalls, carved in Ripon, are among the finest in England and resemble those at Ripon Cathedral and Beverley Minster. The nave roof is supported by fourteen angel figures holding musical instruments. The cathedral also preserves a series of chantry chapels built in the early 16th century. Visitors find a spacious nave with double aisles created by the chantry chapels. The Lady Chapel, rebuilt after war damage, leads into the chancel with its high clerestory windows. The Angel Stone, dated to the 12th century, remains in the south porch. The cathedral’s west tower and surviving medieval fabric stand alongside Victorian additions. The building’s wide nave is often cited as the broadest in any English cathedral.