SALFORD HUNDRED 



MANCHESTER 



Trinity chapel, built by William RadclifFe of Ordsall, 

 about 1498, at the west of the former north porch of 

 the nave, whose site is now included in the outer north 

 aisle. In i 506 the Jesus chapel, or Byrom chantry, 

 filling the space between the TrafFord chapel and the 

 chapter-house, was built by Richard Bexwicke. The 

 srnall Hulme chapel adjoined it on the south-east. In 

 1507 St. James's chapel, afterwards called the Strange- 

 ways chapel, was built at the north-east of the nave, by 

 one of the Hulmes of Halton, or by one of the Chetham 

 family. In 1508 St. George's chapel was built by 

 William Galey to the west of St. Nicholas's chapel. 

 There appears to be no precise record of the building 

 of the north chapel of the nave, between St. James's 

 chapel and the old north porch. In 1 5 1 3 the large 

 Derby chapel was finished and dedicated in honour 

 of St. John the Baptist by James Stanley, fifth 

 warden, on the north side of the north aisle of the 

 quire, equal in length to it, and 24 ft. wide. The 

 Ely chapel, opening northward from the second bay 

 of this chapel, was finished in 1515 by Sir John 

 Stanley, son of the warden, who became Bishop of 

 Ely in 1506. The Lady chapel, built early in 

 the 14th century, is said to have been rebuilt in 

 1 5 18 by George West, warden 1516-28, but this 

 seems doubtful from the slender architectural evidence 

 which remains. The chapel seems to have been 

 again rebuilt in the 1 8th century, with tracery which 

 was a curious copy of 14th-century work, and all the 

 external stonework has since been renewed. 



The college was dissolved in 1 547, but re-established 

 in 1553 ; the fabric of the church probably did not 

 suffer any serious damage at this date. Again dissolved 

 in 1646, it was again re-established under Charles II, 

 and through the 1 7th and 1 8th centuries underwent 

 a good deal of repair in its external stonework. In 1 8 1 5 

 a barbarous work of mutilation, in the name of repair, 

 was begun, aU the internal stonework of the nave and 

 clearstory, with the north aisle, chancel-arch, and tower- 

 arch, being hacked over with picks and then covered 

 with a coat of cement, completely destroying the old 

 face of the stonework and seriously weakening the 

 arches. The screens in the nave chapels were also 

 destroyed and the roofs of the aisles hacked about and 

 covered with plaster. Galleries were set up in the 

 nave, and the irregular line of arches separating the 

 southern chapels from the south aisle of the nave 

 was destroyed and replaced by a uniform arcade which 

 when finished was coated like the older work with 

 cement. 



A series of repairs undertaken in a very different 

 spirit, but even more far-reaching in the matter of 

 destroying the old work, began in 1863 with a re- 

 building of the west tower, nothing of the former 

 tower beyond part of its east wall being preserved. 

 In 1870 the external masonry of the clearstory, which 

 had been entirely renewed as lately as 1855, was 

 again renewed, and the design altered in several par- 

 ticulars, and in 1872 the main arcades of the nave 

 were taken down and rebuilt in new stone, accurately 

 copying the old. The south porch, which had been 

 rebuilt late in the 17th century by a Manchester 

 merchant named Bibby, was partly reconstructed in 

 1 87 1, and entirely rebuilt in 1 891, while the present 

 north porch dates from 1888, and a baptistery was 



added at the west end of the south range of nave 

 chapels in 1892. 



The arcade between these chapels and the south 

 aisle, built in 18 15, was rebuilt in 1885 ; the corre- 

 sponding arcade on the north side of the north aisle 

 was also taken down and rebuilt about the same time, 

 and the east walls of the chapels of St. James and 

 St. Nicholas were removed in 1882-4, ^^^ arches 

 put in their place. The north wall of the former 

 chapel was also destroyed, and rebuilt in a line with 

 that of the Trinity chapel. The Eraser chapel, 

 opening on the south of the east bay of the south aisle 

 of the chancel, was built in 1887, and the latest 

 addition to the plan is the large porch built in front 

 of the west face of the west tower in 1900. With 

 such a history it is not to be wondered at that there 

 is not an inch of old stonework on the outside of 

 Manchester Cathedral ; but, new as it is, the whole 

 surface is toned down to a uniform blackness by the 

 smoke-laden air of the city.™" 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION.— The Lady chapel 

 is only 1 5 ft. deep, and is lighted on three sides by 

 pairs of two-light windows, with tracery which appears 

 to be a clumsy copy of 1 4th-century work. The bases 

 of its east, north, and south walls may well be of this 

 date, and its west arch of three moulded orders with 

 engaged filleted shafts in the jambs is good work of 

 c. 1330. On the west face of the wall above it is a 

 panelled four-centred arch, which seems to be marked 

 as the work of Warden Huntington by his rebus of a 

 hunting scene and a tun, and the chapel is separated 

 from the ' retroquire ' by a wooden screen much re- 

 stored by Sir Gilbert Scott, but preserving some old 

 work, including a St. George over the door. It prob- 

 ably dates from the recorded founding of a chantry 

 here by Warden West in 1 5 18. 



The present arrangement of the eastern arm of the 

 church is that the two western bays are taken up by 

 the quire stalls, and the altar stands between the 

 eastern pair of columns of the main arcades, against a 

 modern stone reredos, while screens inclose the quire 

 and presbytery on both sides. The back of the 

 reredos is covered by a piece of tapestry made in 

 1 66 1, and representing the deaths of Ananias and 

 Sapphira. The lower parts of the screens, and the 

 altar rails, are in wrought ironwork of the i8th cen- 

 tury, of very good detail, while the upper parts are of 

 late Gothic woodwork. The stalls are very fine 

 examples of the same period, having been finished 

 about 1508. There are twelve on each side, and 

 three returned stalls at the west on either side of the 

 quire entrance, making thirty in all. The arms of 

 de la Warr occur on a bench-end, in reference to the 

 founder of the college, and on two others are a quar- 

 terly coat of Stanley, Man, Lathom, and a cheeky coat 

 which seems to refer to Joan Goushill wife of Sir 

 Thomas Stanley, ob. 1458. An eagle's claw on one 

 of the misericordes is a Stanley badge, and the legend 

 of the eagle and child is on one of the bench-ends 

 which bears the Stanley arms. Another shield has a 

 cheveron between seven nails and in chief the letters 

 I B, for John Bexwicke, impaling the arms of the 

 Mercers' Company. 



The stalls have tall and rich canopies in two stages, 

 and a coved cresting with hanging open tracery, the 



="» A complete list of the repairs between 1638 and 1884 will be found in T. L. Worthington's Historical Account of the 

 Cathedral Church of Mamhester (pp. 49-51). 



189 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



