MonasteryQuest™ Pt 2: The Tudor cathedrals that almost were

Stained Glass Attitudes

In lockdown 2020, I came across a list of every monastery dissolved under the government of Henry VIII in 1535-40. My mission, which I chose to accept (because what else was I going to do) was to find the location and condition of every English monastery and its church. This. Is MonasteryQuest™.

It is reasonably well known that the dissolution of the monasteries completed in 1540 resulted in six new cathedrals in England. These were the first new dioceses since 1133 (when the Augustinian Priory at Carlisle was made a cathedral), and the last until 1836 (when Ripon Minster was elevated to finally officially take the burden off York for the rising industrial towns). These were Chester, Gloucester, Oxford (shifted site, see below), Peterborough, Bristol and (for a decade) Westminster. What is much less well-known is that around 1540 the Crown was contemplating converting some –…

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