Salford Cathedral

In the Middle Ages, Salford was much more important than Manchester. Today, many people consider it to be a suburb of Manchester as it’s only the bridges over the River Irwell that separates them.

Like most English Catholic Cathedrals, Salford cathedral was built in the Victorian period with the gradual lessening of restrictions on Catholics. It was built over 4 years starting in 1844 and is built in the Gothic revival. It’s unusual in that it’s the first Catholic church to be built in the form of a cross (cruciform) since the reformation.

At the time, a Catholic church couldn’t be consecrated until its debt was fully paid which and so it wasn’t until 1890 when the last £1,000 was paid off that it could be consecrated.

Despite it being a relatively young church, it has had its fair share of renovations and building issues.

I arrived to photograph it just at the end of the midday Mass and some of the lovely parishioners invited me to have lunch with them, I declined in order to take some photographs while the sun was partly shining. Quite a rare thing in Manchester.