Genealogy Chat

I have come upon details of my Gt Grandparents marriage and the place is given as Cathedral Manchester. Does anyone know if this is The Manchester Cathedral. I have seem this come up on the IGI as well and there seem too many occurrences for a normal Cathedral, is it the name of a church or district? Lynne

Hi Lynne, Just come across some info regarding Manchester Cathedral and I am pretty sure they are one and the same. If you go to this site it will tell you why so many marriages took place there, seems some things never change it was all down to money LOL!! http://www.genuki[.]org[.]uk/big/eng/LAN/Manchester/Cathedral.shtml Gen

they held bulk marriages at the Cathederal - sometimes 50+ couples at a time, usually on days like christmas - when people had time off work

Thomas De La Warre had converted and reconstructed the parish church of Manchester into a collegiate church in 1422 dedicated to St Mary, St Denys and St George. In 1847 this building became Manchester Cathedral and is located at the junction of Cateaton Street and Victoria Street. The present day cathedral is largely fifteenth century in origin and built in Perpencicular Gothic style, but the tower was added in 1868.

Hi Gen, Thanks you that info, you are a mine of information! you sorted out my Swindell family yesterday, Thanks Lynne

Hi She Wray, Thank you for that information, I couldn't understand why my not very well off ancesteors married in a cathedral, Lynne

Hi Geoff, Thanks for the history of the cathedral, l will find out more about it, Lynne

As a general point, a cathedral is/was a parish church and if you live in the parish you probably get married there. The word cathedral come from the latin "cathedra" meaning chair. It is simply the place where the bishop's throne is.

From 1753 until well into the nineteenth century, all marriages except for Quakers and Jews had to take place in Anglican Churches. For the many Nonconformists and Roman Catholics who could not officially marry in their own Churches, the logical place to marry would be in the main Anglican Church of the town, such as Manchester Cathedral, or St Peter's Parish Church in Leeds, to give two examples I know well. There their being uncomfortable or unhappy with details of the ceremony would pass relatively un-noticed, when 20 or more weddings were conducted in a day. Stan

My gt- grandparents were married at Manchester Cathedral on xmas day. When I visited the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society a lady helping there told me the story of how xmas day was a popular day to get married as it was often the only day off they got. She went on to say about how lots of couple were married in one go and it wasn't unknown for a groom who was worse the wear for drink to get someone to stand in for him. With so many couples getting married at once no-one noticed!