• Source: List of former cathedrals in Great Britain

This is a list of former or once proposed cathedrals in Great Britain.




Introduction


The term former cathedral in this list includes any Christian church (building) in Great Britain which has been the seat of a bishop, but is not so any longer. The status of a cathedral, for the purpose of this list, does not depend on whether the church concerned is known to have had a formal "throne" (or cathedra) nor whether a formal territory or diocese was attached to the church or bishop concerned. Before the development of dioceses, which began earlier in England than in Scotland and Wales, "such bishops as there were either lived in monasteries or were 'wandering bishops'". This list, therefore, includes early "bishop's churches" (a "proto-cathedral" is similar).
A former cathedral may be the building that lost its cathedral status or its site, whether now vacant or not. The loss of status may be because that bishopric is extinct, or was relocated. Sometimes a new cathedral was built near an older one, with the older building then used for other purposes, or demolished. Such a building or site counts as a former cathedral. Where a cathedral is modified or rebuilt on substantially the same site in a series of developments over time, the earlier versions are not counted here as former cathedrals (except for cases where the original cathedral was totally rebuilt on broadly the same site but on a visibly different alignment, such as London's "Old St Paul's" and Winchester's "Old Minster" which are listed here).
A former pro-cathedral is a church or former church (or site of a former church) which was once a designated temporary cathedral officially performing that role until completion of a new cathedral built for that purpose.
A once proposed cathedral is a church that was proposed (usually by a church or civil authority) as a future cathedral but, for some reason, did not become one. Known examples will be included in this list. Sometimes a second such proposal for the same church succeeded: as long as that church retains its cathedral status it will not feature in this List.
Entries contain information drawn from other Wikipedia articles and from (cited) other sources. Some entries include (in the Name column) references to 'Site' and 'Status'. In most cases there is no doubt about the site occupied by a former cathedral, nor its status as the former seat of a bishop. In a few cases the site is unknown within a limited area ('uncertain') or over a wide area ('unknown'). In a few cases, it is not entirely clear whether the location was historically the seat of a bishop (or, for a once proposed cathedral, had been seriously considered for elevation to cathedral status). Status 'uncertain' in such cases suggests some doubt, while 'doubtful' suggests considerable doubt.
For information on current cathedrals in Great Britain please refer to:List of cathedrals in England, or List of cathedrals in Scotland, or List of cathedrals in Wales, as appropriate.




England


References are to the English church's current use or its use prior to deconsecration.




= Former cathedrals founded before 1066

=
survivors becoming Church of England at the Reformation (1540)




= Former cathedrals founded (or proposed) between 1066 and 1539

=
survivors becoming Church of England at the Reformation (1540)




= Former Church of England cathedrals founded (or proposed) from 1540 to the present

=




= Former Post-Reformation Roman Catholic cathedrals

=




Scotland


For various reasons, formal dioceses were formed later in Scotland than in the rest of Great Britain. Bishops certainly existed in areas from the earliest Christian times (often from Irish monastic missionary activity), but the territory over which an early (often monastic) bishop operated was ill-defined. Hence the term "bishop's church" is sometimes used for a seat used by an early bishop rather than the word "cathedral" which some expect to be attached to a formal diocese. Traditionally, the medieval Scottish diocesan system was held to have been largely created by the Norman-influenced King David I (reigned 1124–1153), though this is an oversimplification.
Nevertheless, in this List, the large number of pre-Reformation cathedrals in Scotland has been split into two sections in an attempt to make the information more manageable. The first section comprises cathedrals founded before 1100; the second, those cathedrals founded (or proposed) between 1100 and 1560. The choice of the year 1100, though arbitrary, approximates to the beginning of the reign of King David I (1124) (see above) and is also close to the date of the Norman Conquest (1066) which has been used to separate the two sections of pre-Reformation cathedrals in the portion of this List covering England.
In order to assist users of this List to trace the development of the dioceses, the text of most entries is preceded by the name (in parentheses) of the late medieval Scottish diocese into which each early cathedral merged, usually by a process of translation of the see to a new location.
As the Scottish Reformation of 1560 developed, bishops and cathedrals became progressively marginalised and neglected. By Act of the Scottish Parliament in 1690 (confirming the Church's own final decision of 1689), the Church of Scotland finally became wholly Presbyterian, with no dioceses, no bishops, so no functioning cathedrals. At that date, all cathedrals of the Church of Scotland became former cathedrals. However, some still use the title, but for honorific purposes only.
The Scottish Episcopal Church (part of the Anglican Communion) and the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland maintain their own diocesan structures with their own cathedrals and bishops.




= Former cathedrals founded before 1100

=
survivors becoming Church of Scotland at the Scottish Reformation (1560)




= Former cathedrals founded (or proposed) between 1100 and 1560

=
survivors becoming Church of Scotland at the Scottish Reformation (1560)




= Former Post-Reformation cathedrals

=
During and after the Scottish Reformation (1560) cathedrals were increasingly neglected and abandoned, but episcopacy continued to be supported by Stuart Kings. By Act of the Scottish Parliament in 1690 (confirming the Church's own final decision of 1689) the Church of Scotland became wholly Presbyterian, with no dioceses, no bishops, so no cathedrals as such. At that date, all Church of Scotland cathedrals became former cathedrals. Some still use the title, but for honorific purposes only.
The Scottish Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland maintain their own diocesan structures with their own cathedrals and bishops, as do the Orthodox churches.
Church of Scotland

Scottish Episcopal Church




= Former Post-Reformation Roman Catholic cathedrals

=




Wales


The end of Roman rule in Britain in the early 5th century left a Romano-British (later sometimes called "Celtic") church which became increasingly confined to the western parts of the island (principally modern Wales) as Angles, Saxons, and other invaders attacked and settled from the east. This church grew in size and influence in the west during the 6th and 7th centuries (a period sometimes characterised in Wales as the "Age of the Saints") with the conversion of ruling families (and consequently their peoples). Among the clergy, the title of "bishop" was more frequently used than later when large dioceses developed. The surviving evidence for most of these early bishoprics is now fragmentary and secondary at best, if not legendary. This list contains some better-evidenced examples.
The dioceses of the Welsh church, certainly from Norman times, were, sometimes reluctantly, part of the English church in the Province of Canterbury. This situation continued after the establishment of the Church of England at the Reformation until 1920, when the Church of England was disestablished in Wales, becoming the Church in Wales, a separate self-governing member of the Anglican Communion.




= Former cathedrals (or proposed cathedrals)

=




= The Seven Bishop-Houses of the Kingdom of Dyfed

=
Collections of medieval Welsh Law record that the (early medieval) Kingdom of Dyfed had seven so-called "bishop-houses" (in Welsh, esgopty), following a general pattern of one bishop-house in each cantref. Their role is not clear, but they must have been relatively important ecclesiastical sites (with St Davids having a higher status than any of the others). Apart from the Bishop of St Davids, their heads were described as abbots, not bishops.
Whether the other six were also bishoprics, former bishoprics, burial places of saint-bishops, or staging posts in the travels of (say) the bishop of St Davids is debated. They are included here on the basis that any and all of them may well have been the seat of a bishop at some time. Details of all seven bishop-houses are given below for the sake of completeness, although St Davids has never ceased to be the seat of a bishop. The status of a bishop-house, as distinct from that of a cathedral (St Davids), seems not to have survived the ending of the Kingdom of Dyfed (in 920), even less the arrival of the Normans.
The sites identified below may not be exactly the original sites of the bishop-houses (with the probable exception of Llandeilo Llwydarth): some minor relocation over the course of centuries cannot be ruled out.




Isle of Man


While the Isle of Man is not politically part of Great Britain, but ecclesiastically it forms the Diocese of Sodor and Man in the Province of York of the Church of England, and part of the Archdiocese of Liverpool for the Roman Catholic church, so it is included on this List.
The Diocese of Sodor and Man is the English successor to the (first Norwegian, later Scottish) Diocese of Sodor or Diocese of the Isles. The English Crown seized control of the Isle of Man from Scotland during the 14th century, and the island was no longer a component of the ''Sudreys'' (the Hebrides plus the Isle of Man). From that point the Diocese of Sodor and Man was limited to the Isle of Man alone, while the Hebrides formed the Diocese of the Isles in the Scottish Church, with its cathedral no longer at Peel, Isle of Man.




= Former cathedrals

=




See also


Lists of cathedrals in the United Kingdom
List of cathedrals in Ireland




Notes






References


Baldwin, John R. (ed) (1986). Firthlands of Ross and Sutherland. Edinburgh: Scottish Society for Northern Studies. ISBN 978-0-950-59944-1
Barlow, Frank (2nd edn. 1979). The English Church 1000–1066. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49049-9.
Barrell, Andrew D. M. (2000). Medieval Scotland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-58443-2.
Blair, John (2005). The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-822695-0
Bowen, E. G. (2nd edn. 1956). The Settlements of the Celtic Saints in Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
Brabbs, Derry (1985). English Country Churches. London: George Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Bright, William (3rd edn. 1897). Chapters of Early English Church History. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Cannon, Jon (2007). Cathedral. London: Constable & Robinson. ISBN 978-1-84901-679-7
Chadwick, Nora K. (1961). The Age of the Saints in the Early Celtic Church. London: Oxford University Press.
Charles-Edwards, T. M. (1971). "The Seven Bishop-Houses of Dyfed" in Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies (University of Wales), 24, 1970–2, pp. 247–62.
Charles-Edwards, T. M. (2013). Wales and the Britons 350–1064. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-821731-2
Coplestone-Crow, Bruce (2009). Herefordshire Place-names. Almeley, Herefordshire: Logaston Press. ISBN 978-1906663-21-6
Cruden, Stewart (1950). St Andrews Cathedral: Official Guide. Edinburgh: HMSO. ISBN 0-11-490696-3
Cutts, Rev. Edward L. (1887). A Dictionary of the Church of England. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Dale, Johanna (ed.). (2023). St Peter-on-the-Walls: Landscape and Heritage on the Essex Coast. London: UCL Press. ISBN 978-1-800-08436-0
Davies, John Reuben (2003). The Book of Llandaf and the Norman Church in Wales. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. ISBN 1-84383-024-8.
Davies, Wendy (1978). An Early Welsh Microcosm: Studies in the Llandaff Charters. London: Royal Historical Society. ISBN 0-901050-33-4.
Davies, Wendy (1979). The Llandaff Charters. Aberystwyth: The National Library of Wales. ISBN 0-901833-88-6.
Davies, Wendy (1982). Wales in the Early Middle Ages. Leicester: Leicester University Press. ISBN 0-7185-1163-8.
Deanesly, Margaret (1961). The Pre-Conquest Church in England. London: Adam & Charles Black.
Dowden, John & Thomson, J. Maitland (eds) (1912). The Bishops of Scotland. Glasgow: J. Maclehose & Sons.
Edwards, David L. (1989). The Cathedrals of Britain. Norwich: Pitkin Pictorials.
Evans, Margaret Carey (1987). "The Contribution of Hoxne to the Cult of St Edmund King and Martyr in the Middle Ages and later" in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, Vol. XXXVI (1987), pp. 182–195.
Evans, J. Wyn & Wooding, Jonathan M. (eds.). (2007). St David of Wales: Cult, Church and Nation. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.. ISBN 1843833220.
Fawcett, Richard (1997). Scottish Cathedrals. London: B. T. Batsford / Historic Scotland ISBN 0-7134-8188-9.
Fernie, Eric (1983). The Architecture of the Anglo-Saxons. London: B T Batsford. ISBN 0713415827
Fryde, E. B., Greenway, D. E., Porter, S. & Roy, L. (eds) (3rd edn. 1986). Handbook of British Chronology. London: Royal Historical Society. ISBN 0-86193-106-8.
Galloway, Peter (2000). The Cathedrals of Scotland. Dalkeith: Scottish Cultural Press ISBN 1-84017-026-3.
Gelling, (Canon) John (1998). A History of the Manx Church 1698–1911. Douglas: The Manx Heritage Foundation. ISBN 0-952-4019-4-0.
Godfrey, C. John (1962). The Church in Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Green, Lionel 2002). Daughter Houses of Merton Priory. Morden: Merton Historical Society ISBN 1-903899-08-7.
Haslam, Jeremy, ed. (1984). Anglo-Saxon Towns in Southern England. Chichester, Sussex: Philimore. ISBN 0-8503-3438-1.
Hill, Geoffry (1900). English Dioceses. London: Elliot Stock.
Hobbs, Mary, ed. (1994). Chichester Cathedral: An Historic Survey. Chichester: Phillimore. ISBN 0-85033-924-3.
James, Heather (2007). "The geography of the cult of St David: a study of dedication patterns in the medieval diocese" in Evans & Wooding (2007), pp. 41–83
Jankulak, Karen (2000). The Medieval Cult of St Petroc. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press ISBN 0-85115-7777.
Jeffery, Paul (2004). The Collegiate Churches of England and Wales. London: Robert Hale ISBN 0-7090-7412-3.
Jeffery, Paul (2012). England's Other Cathedrals. Port Stroud: The History Press ISBN 978-0-7524-5347-7.
Jenkins, Simon (1999). England's Thousand Best Churches. Harmondsworth: Allen Lane The Penguin Press ISBN 0-713-99281-6.
Jenkyns, Richard (2014). Westminster Abbey: A Thousand Years of National Pageantry. London: Profile Books ISBN 1846685346.
Knowles, David & Hadcock, R. Neville (1971, 2nd edn.). Religious Houses England & Wales. London: Longman ISBN 0-582-11230-3
Macdonald, A. & Laing, L. (1967–68). "Early Ecclesiastical Sites in Scotland: a Field Survey, Part I" in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. 100, (1967–68), pp. 123–134.
Macdonald, A. & Laing, L. (1969–70). "Early Ecclesiastical Sites in Scotland: a Field Survey, Part II" in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. 102 (1969–70), pp. 129–145.
Midmer, Roy (1979). English Mediaeval Monasteries 1066–1540. London: William Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-46535-6
New, Anthony S. B. (1972). The Observer's Book of Cathedrals. London: Frederick Warne & Co.
Olson, Lynette (1989). Early Monasteries in Cornwall. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. ISBN 0-85115-478-6.
OPS (1865) Origines Parochiales Scotiae. Edinburgh: W. H. Lizars.
Orme, Nicholas (1996). English Church Dedications. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. ISBN 0-85989-516-5
Orme, Nicholas (2007). Cornwall and the Cross. Chichester: Phillimore & Co. ISBN 978-1-86077-468-3.
Orme, Nicholas (2014). The Churches of Medieval Exeter. Exeter: Impress Books. ISBN 978-1-907605-51-2.
Pedler, Edward Hoblyn (1856). The Anglo-Saxon Episcopate of Cornwall; with some account of the Bishops of Crediton. London: John Petheram.
Pepin, David (1994). Discovering Cathedrals. Aylesbury: Shire Publications. ISBN 978-0-747801-73-3
Pestell, Tim (2004). Landscapes of Monastic Foundation: The Establishment of Religious Houses in East Anglia c.650-1200. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-062-7.
Petts, David (2009). The Early Medieval Church in Wales. Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-4102-3.
Phillips, C. W. (ed) (1973). Britain Before the Norman Conquest. Southampton: Ordnance Survey.
Platten, Stephen (1999). Cathedrals & Abbeys of England. Norwich: Jarrold. ISBN 978-0-711710-03-0.
Ray, Keith (2001). "Archaeology and the Three Early Churches of Herefordshire" in Malpas, Ann, et al. (eds) The Early Church in Herefordshire. Leominster: Leominster History Study Group. ISBN 978-09-53631-41-4, pp. 99–148.
Rippon, Stephen & Holbrook, Neil (eds) (2021). Roman and Medieval Exeter and their Hinterlands: From Isca to Excancester. Oxford: Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-789256-15-4
Salter, Mike (2011). Medieval Abbeys and Cathedrals of Scotland. Malvern: Folly Publications ISBN 978-1-871731-89-7.
Slade, H. Gordon & Watson, George (1989). "St Peter's Kirk, Thurso, Caithness c 1150–1832" in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Vol. 119, pp. 297–325.
Smith, Nick Mayhew (2011). Britain's holiest places. Bristol: Lifestyle Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0-9544767-4-8.
Tatton-Brown, Tim (1989). Great Cathedrals of Britain. London: BBC Books. ISBN 0-563-20730-2.
Thomas, Sarah E. (2009). "Rival bishops, rival cathedrals: the election of Cormac, archdeacon of Sodor, as bishop in 1331" in The Innes Review, Vol. 60 no. 2 (Autumn 2009), pp. 145–163.
Thomas, Sarah E. (2014). "From cathedral of the Isles to obscurity – the archaeology and history of Skeabost Island, Snizort" in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. 144 (2014), pp. 245–264.
Thorold, Henry (1986). Collins Guide To Cathedrals, Abbeys and Priories of England and Wales. London: Collins.
Tiller, Kate (ed) (2005). Dorchester Abbey: Church and People 635–2005. Witney: Stonesfield Press ISBN 0-9527126-4-4.
Williams, A. H. (1962). An Introduction to the History of Wales: Volume 1 – Prehistoric Times to 1063 AD. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
Wooding, Jonathan M. & Yates, Nigel (eds) (2011). A Guide to the Churches and Chapels of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-0-7083-2118-8.
Woolf, Alex. (2007) "The Cult of Moluag, the See of Mortlach and Church Organisation in Northern Scotland in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries", pp. 299–310 in Arbuthnot, A & Hollo, K (eds) (2007). Fil Suil Nglais a Grey Eye Looks Back; Brig O Turk: Clann Tuirc. ISBN 978-0954973377.
Yorke, B. A. E. (1982). "The Foundation of the Old Minster and the Status of Winchester in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries" in Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club Archaeological Society, Vol. 38, (1982), pp. 75–83.
Young, Francis (2018). Edmund: In Search of England's Lost King. London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-78831-179-3

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• List of former cathedrals in Great Britain
• Lists of cathedrals in the United Kingdom
• List of cathedrals in England
• List of cathedrals in Scotland
• List of British monarchs
• List of cathedrals in Ireland
• A roads in Zone 4 of the Great Britain numbering scheme
• Dioceses of Scotland in the High and Later Middle Ages
• A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme
• A roads in Zone 1 of the Great Britain numbering scheme