|
|||||
|
Home > |
Manchester Cathedral |
The misericords and history of Manchester Cathedral,
The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George.
Manchester Cathedral has 30 misericords, considered to be among the finest in Europe.
Please launch the complete misericord description page here
Please click on the thumbnails for larger images.
History of Manchester Cathedral, Lancashire.
There has been a church on or near this site since the late 7th century and on this location since 1215 when the current building was founded and dedicated to St Mary. The cathedral is primarily built in the Perpendicular Gothic Style, with many tall windows and a flat fan-vaulted ceiling. St Mary’s gained it’s collegiate status in 1421 and the dedication was enlarged to include St Denys and St George. Subsequent to gaining it’s college, an choir was added between 1422 and 1458, The misericords probably date from the very early 16th century, shortly after the completion of the choir. These misericords have a stylistic resemblance to those at Ripon Minster and Beverley Minster, and were probably carved by the same Ripon school. Between 1465 and 1481 the nave was re-built to conform architecturally with the new choir and a chancel arch was added. In 1506 the nave’s north colonnade was moved 2 feet to the north and a clearstory was added.
Henry VIII’s dissolution came quite late to Manchester, as it was not until 1547 that the college was dissolved and the chantries discontinued, to be reinstated a mere 6 years later under Mary I. Under Elizabeth I, the college of was renamed Christ’s College.
The civil war, whilst not as disastrous as it was to Peterborough, was still one of the cathedral’s low points - Ransacked is probably the most appropriate word.
It was not until 1847 that the diocese of Manchester was created and the parish church was upgraded to cathedral status, subsequently there was a rash of refurbishments and renewals, including demolishing the, by then, unsafe north tower
Manchester Cathedral has a wealth of other carvings
Click here for Manchester Cathedral’s official website
RSS feed for Automated updates of the regular upgrades to misericords.co.uk