The Cathedral Church of Our Lady Help of Christians and Saint Peter of Alcantara, commonly known as Shrewsbury Cathedral, is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is the seat of the

Roman Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury The Bishop of Shrewsbury is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury in the Province of Birmingham, England. The diocese covers an area of of the counties and unitary authorities of Cheshire, Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin w ...

and

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral or a metro ...

of the

Diocese of Shrewsbury The Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury is a Roman Catholic diocese in the Province of Birmingham which encompasses the pre-1974 counties of Shropshire and Cheshire in the North West and West Midlands of England. The diocese includes rural are ...

, which covers the historic counties of

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

and

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

. The cathedral is particularly notable as being the only cathedral in the county. Unlike most other English counties and county towns, neither Shropshire nor Shrewsbury has a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

cathedral.

History

Construction

The building of the cathedral was originally commissioned by

John Talbot, 16th Earl of Shrewsbury John Talbot, 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, 16th Earl of Waterford (18 March 1791 – 9 November 1852) was a British peer and aristocrat. Sometimes known as "Good Earl John", he has been described as "the most prominent British Catholic of his day ...

, the intended architect being

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( ; 1 March 181214 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and, ultimately, Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival st ...

, but both men died in 1852 before the work was expected to start. The succeeding nephew, the 17th Earl, Bertram Talbot, offered to fund the building of the cathedralChurch Spotlight report. from which the new diocese of Shrewsbury would be based. The cathedral's design was taken over by

Edward Pugin Edward Welby Pugin (11 March 1834 – 5 June 1875) was an English architect, the eldest son of architect Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and Louisa Barton and part of the Pugin & Pugin family of church architects. His father was an architect an ...

, the son of Augustus. Originally, a larger cathedral with a tall

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

was planned. However, two years into the building of the cathedral, a

stratum In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

of sand was discovered very close to the building's foundations, resulting in weaker foundations that led to the scaling down of the cathedral's size and the abandonment of the spire.26 October 1956
from ''Catholic Herald Archive'' accessed 6 April 2013 The Earl of Shrewsbury then agreed to meet the cost of a smaller church, finished at a cost of £4,000, though the Earl died three months prior to its completion. In 1856, the cathedral was completed and was opened by

Cardinal Wiseman Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (3 August 1802 – 15 February 1865) was a Cardinal of the Catholic Church who became the first Archbishop of Westminster upon the re-establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1850. Born ...

. On 30 October 1956, a Mass was said in the cathedral to commemorate its

centenary {{other uses, Centennial (disambiguation), Centenary (disambiguation) A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of 100 years. Notable events Notable centennial events at ...

. The Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Francis Grimshaw of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, Bishop John Murphy of

, Bishop Cyril Restieaux of

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, Bishop Edward Ellis of

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

, Bishop John Rudderham of

Clifton Clifton may refer to: People *Clifton (surname) *Clifton (given name) Places Australia * Clifton, Queensland, a town **Shire of Clifton *Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong *Clifton, Western Australia Canada *Clifton, Nova Scotia ...

and Bishop John Petit of

Menevia The Roman Catholic Diocese of Menevia is a diocese of the Catholic Church in Wales. It is one of two suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cardiff and is subject to the Archdiocese of Cardiff. History On 12 May 1898, the Apost ...

Re-ordered

In 1984, the cathedral was re-ordered, bringing it in line with the revised liturgy of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...

. Local

Grinshill Grinshill is a small village, and civil parish in Shropshire, England, United Kingdom. The parish is one of the smallest in the district. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 274. Grinshill Hill rises above the village to a ...

stone was used for the new

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

, which was consecrated in 1985 by Bishop Joseph Gray. In 2019, it was decided by Bishop Mark Davies that the cathedral's interior would be restored to its original state. The resulting programme of conservation work in the cathedral found a series of 19th century wall paintings by Joseph Aloysius Pippet. The paintings had been hidden under two layers of paint from previous refurbishments in the 1970s and 1980s, described by Sophie Andreae, of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, as "unsympathetic". It is hoped that the paintings can be restored to their former glory. The cathedral has a seating capacity of 300.

Windows

The cathedral has a number of outstanding stained-glass windows. The older set of windows are mostly from the stained glass company Hardman & Co. from Birmingham. The cathedral also has seven windows made during the second and third decades of the 20th century by an artist inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement,

Margaret Agnes Rope Margaret Agnes Rope (20 June 18826 December 1953) was a British stained glass artist in the Arts and Crafts movement tradition active in the first four decades of the 20th century. Her work is notable for the intensity and skill of the paintin ...

, the daughter of a local

doctor Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

; Rope had a studio in the

Glass House The Glass House, or Johnson house, is a historic house museum on Ponus Ridge Road in New Canaan, Connecticut built in 1948–49. It was designed by architect Philip Johnson as his own residence. It has been called his "signature work". The Glas ...

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

from 1911 to 1923. Later, Rope became a

Carmelite , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount Car ...

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

at Woodbridge, Suffolk and later at Quidenham, Norfolk. She also designed and made a notable series of five large lancets at

St Peter and Paul Church, Newport St. Peter and St. Paul Roman Catholic Church is a parish of the Roman Catholic Church in Newport, Shropshire, England. The parish covers Newport and the surrounding villages as far as Hinstock. Salters Hall, in Salters Lane, Newport, is attached ...

. Her cousin

M. E. Aldrich Rope M. E. Aldrich Rope (Margaret Edith Rope) (29 July 1891 – 9 March 1988) was an English stained-glass artist in the Arts and Crafts movement tradition active between 1910 and 1964. She was a cousin of Margaret Agnes Rope of Shrewsbury, anoth ...

was also a stained-glass artist.

War memorial

Rope also designed the cathedral's war memorial, in the west porch, dedicated to the 63 men of its congregation who died serving in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It consists of a pieta, with a wooden plaque below displaying the regimental badge of the

King's Shropshire Light Infantry The King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in the Childers Reforms of 1881, but with antecedents dating back to 1755. It served in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II. In 196 ...

(the main county regiment), and the arms of Shropshire and Shrewsbury. The list of names is inscribed below the plaque, and at its foot is inscribed the opening line in Latin of the

Requiem Mass A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

. Nearby was placed a plaque to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1995.

Location

The cathedral is on a street called Town Walls, adjacent to the historic

town wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

, within the main meander of the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

in the centre of Shrewsbury. It is surrounded by a mainly residential neighbourhood.

Gallery

File:Shrewsbury Cathedral.JPG, North side of the cathedral File:St Cecilia at Shrewsbury Cathedral - geograph.org.uk - 1140468.jpg, St Cecilia window File:Great "West" window at Shrewsbury Cathedral - geograph.org.uk - 1140451.jpg, West window

References

External links

Shrewsbury Cathedral Official WebsiteDiocese of Shrewsbury Official WebsiteThe Catholic Church in England and Wales
{{Diocese of Shrewsbury Roman Catholic cathedrals in England Churches in Shrewsbury Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury Roman Catholic churches in Shropshire Grade II* listed churches in Shropshire Grade II* listed Roman Catholic churches in England Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in Shropshire 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom E. W. Pugin church buildings