MANCHESTER
Dedication: St. Mary the Virgin, St. George and St. Denis. Formerly served by Secular Canons.
Special features: Choir-Stalls; Gordon Window.
Manchester was built for a parish church and only became a cathedral in 1847. It is a very fine specimen of Perpendicular Gothic of the early Fifteenth Century, though there are some remains of older work here and there. The oldest is the arch leading into the Lady-Chapel. This shows some influences of the Decorated style.
The choir, aisles and chapter-house date from 1422-1458; the nave was built in 1465-1481; Chapel of the Holy Trinity, 1498; Jesus Chapel, 1506; St. James’ Chantry (Ducie Chapel), 1507; St. George’s Chapel, 1508; Ely Chapel, 1515; and Lady-Chapel in 1518. The Cathedral suffered during the Civil Wars and has been much restored.
The exterior is not particularly impressive. The walls are grimy with smoke and there is no emerald sward, nor are there ivy-covered walls.
The one tower (built in 1864-1868) rises above a still more recent Western porch, designed by Basil Champneys and ornamented with a parapet and a single crocketed turret, which gives it a very unsymmetrical appearance. The square tower contains a clock in the first stage, soars 140 feet and is finished with a pierced battlement with pinnacles at the corners.
Turning round the corner, we come to the South porch, two bays and two stories (modern) and elaborately carved. Next comes the Jesus Chapel; then the octagonal Chapter-House; then the Fraser memorial chapel; and then we turn the corner and come to the Lady-Chapel, unusually small and projecting only about eighteen feet. The windows are Eighteenth Century, though the tracery is Decorated in general character.
Passing the window of the north-choir-aisle and the eastern end of the Derby Chapel, we again turn the corner. The first projection is the Ely Chapel and the next and smaller one is an engine room used for working the organ. The small door next opens into the ante-chapel of the Derby Chapel. Finally we reach the north porch.
“It is a dimly lighted building; this is due chiefly to two causes: first to the fact that it is enormously wide, and the aisle windows are therefore far from the central nave, and secondly to the fact that almost all the windows both of aisles and clerestory are filled with painted glass, in many cases of a deep colour, and rendered still more impervious to light by the incrustation of carbon deposited on their outside by the perpetual smoke of the city. So dark is the church that in the winter months it has generally to be lit with gas all the day long, and even in the summer, in comparatively bright weather, some gas burners will generally be found alight. The mist also of the exterior atmosphere finds its way into the building, and hangs beneath the roof, lending an air of mystery to the whole place, and giving rise to most beautiful effects when the sunlight streams through the clerestory windows. The tone also of the nave arcading and clerestory rebuilt in recent years, of warm, rose-coloured sandstone, is very lovely.”—(T. P.)