Catalogue description The Records of Manchester Cathedral

The holdings include the largest series of Parish Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials in the Country, dating from 1573 to the present. These have all been microfilmed. Requests for certified copies of parish registers to be addressed to The Archivist at archives@manchestercathedral.org. Other significant holdings include: Chapter Minutes 1635-present day; Records concerning the Fabric of the Building 1756-present day; Precentors' Registers 1863-present day (recording daily music settings); Service Sheets and Printed ephemera 1832-present day; Photographs of building, ceremonies and individuals c1850-present day; Chapter Estates material 1361-1960

Manchester Cathedral

Requests for access to be addressed to The Archivist at archives@manchestercathedral.org

Manchester Cathedral is one of the earliest and most significant buildings in Manchester. Alongside the original College Buildings that now house Chetham's Library and part of Chetham's School of Music, it forms Manchester's medieval quarter. An understanding of the history of the Cathedral is the key to developing an understanding of the early development and growth of Manchester itself. Much of this history is contained within the Cathedral Archives, a valuable collection dating from the fourteenth century to the present day. Manchester was only made a Cathedral in 1847, but it had been a Collegiate Church since 1421, when Thomas De la Warre, the 12th Baron of Manchester, was granted a licence by Henry V to convert the Parish Church of St Mary into a Collegiate foundation. The current Dean of Manchester Cathedral is still also officially Warden of the Collegiate Church. Manchester and Durham are the only Cathedral Chapters to retain administration of their ancient endowment estates, having been exempted from the Cathedrals Measure of 1931. Manchester's original estate comprised land in the Parsonage and Deansgate area of Manchester, where the clergy residences were situated, together with the township of Kirkmanshulme (Churchman's Meadow), or Newton Detached in Longsight; the whole of Newton Heath and Miles Platting, and also some smaller areas of land in Rusholme and Salford. The Kirkmanshulme land is recorded as belonging to the Church in the Domesday Book, while the Newton Heath land appears to have been added in the 12th Century. The deeds mostly date from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. This series has immense potential for building historians and those wishing to chart the changes in land use in Manchester - particularly during the industrial revolution.