Faith

Shrewsbury Catholic Cathedral

Shrewsbury Cathedral's 150th anniversary

Discover Shrewsbury's hidden cathedral in Douglas Saltmarsh's video. Find out more about the history of the Edward Pugin's building and take a tour.

History of Shrewsbury Cathedral

In 1850 The Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury was established. Roger Hall, a member of the current congregation has been researching the history of Shrewsbury Cathedral: "A bishop was put in charge and every bishop needs a cathedral". 

The Earl of Shrewsbury offered to pay for the cathedral, a plot of land was found and the Earl's favourite architect, Augustus Pugin, was commissioned to design the building. 

But a string of bad luck followed. Both the Earl and Pugin died before the designs were drawn up and the job fell to Pugin's 19 year old son. 

Saint John the Evangelist

Edward Pugin planned a substantial building with a tall spire to rival the one at St Mary's. It would have looked incredible from the river, but his grand designs were scuppered by weak foundations. Instead the spire was abandoned, the whole building was scaled down and the cathedral finally opened in 1856.

Look at any church or cathedral and you would expect the east window to be at... well, the east end. But the plot was an awkward shape so instead of lying east west, the church points north south. "So what we call the east end of the Cathedral is really, strictly speaking, facing geographical north... we just pretend it's east!"

So what's special about Shrewsbury Cathedral? Roger says it's the windows. They each have a story to tell, and some need a bit of detective work! One depicts a wine goblet and a dragon. It turns out that this is a traditional representation of the story of  St John the Evangelist and the legend of the poisoned cup.

Several windows were designed by Margaret Rope at the beginning of the 20th Century. She was born in Shrewsbury and worked in the Arts and Crafts style. One window features her brother while another, if you look carefully, has a 1920s London bus.

Roger Hall believes the church is the centre of his world. "I find real peace here and fulfilment." He says it's an exciting year as they celebrate the 150th Anniversary. They've uncovered lots of interesting photographs and they've found archives that have been mislaid for years.

See inside Shrewsbury Cathedral

Enjoyed reading about Shrewsbury Cathedral? Find out more about its fascinating history and take a tour in Douglas Saltmarsh's video.

Watch Douglas Saltmarsh's cathedral video > Audio and Video links on this page require Realplayer

Douglas Saltmash

Douglas Saltmarsh has been a lifelong Catholic and served as an altar boy at Shrewsbury Cathedral. He became interested in film-making while at Trinity College, Carmarthen and later attended a media course run by the Rural Media Company in Hereford.

Doug was always interested in history having completed a Degree in Archaeology and was keen to explore the history of the Cathedral and the events leading up to its construction. What he found was a unique building. It is the only Cathedral in the country built in a town.

The music for the Shrewsbury Cathedral video was written by acclaimed Shropshire composer Gerald Masters. The two tracks (also performed by Gerald Masters) are entitled Time Piece and Midniterail.