CHESTER CATHEDRAL

Cheshire

Full Dedication: The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary
Became a Cathedral in 1541

Chester's Cathedral has been heavily restored over the centuries.  Like many English Cathedrals it started life as a monastery, in this case a Benedictine one founded on the site of an existing church in 1092.  It's monastic life came to an abrupt end when it was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1540.  However, rather than reducing it to a ruin the Cathedral status of St. John's Church across the City was shifted to here.

Much of Chester Cathedral's glory is inside, the carvings in the choir (from circa 1390) although the choir screen is Sir George Gilbert Scott's from 1876.

Outside stands the Bell Tower built in 1977 (to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee) which is very modernistic in it's appearance and quite a contrast to the Cathedral's heavily restored Gothic.

Photo - Andrew J. Müller

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© Text copyright - Raving Loony Productions and Andrew J. Müller, Roy Barton
and Shaun Runham
© Photos and Artwork - Andrew J. Müller
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2001