NEWCASTLE CATHEDRAL
ENGLAND CATHOLIC
PAUL SCOTT
In this excellent Cathedral plan, the windows are all numbered, and we have kept this numbering for reference in the text. The letters give reference as follows.
M,N,P. Blessed Sacrament Chapel 30
The Bishop Hume Statue is at the East (top) end.
After walking around the outside of the Cathedral as best we can, we enter the Cathedral by the West (bottom) door, and explore the interior in a clockwise direction.
There are some brief histrical notes given in the main text, but a concise history is also given below.
However, if you wish to proceed straight to a tour of the Cathedral now, click on START .
Intermediated points on the tour can be accessed using the links above.
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HISTORY
The Cathedral Church of St Mary is a Catholic cathedral in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the mother church of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle and seat of the Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle. The Cathedral, situated on Clayton Street, was designed by Augustus Welby Pugin and built between 1842 and 1844. The Cathedral is a grade I listed building and a fine example of the Gothic Revival style of architecture championed by Pugin. There is a monument dedicated to Cardinal Basil Hume in the Monument Garden outside of the Cathedral, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002. St Mary’s Cathedral is the sixth tallest structure in the city.
St. Mary’s Church in Newcastle opened in August 1844, paid for largely through halfpenny subscriptions from the community of poor immigrants on Tyneside. The priest at the mission at Newcastle upon Tyne was William Riddell. The stained glass in the Great East Window, Lady Chapel and Blessed Sacrament Chapel windows was done by William Wailes in 1843 to designs provided by Pugin.
By decree of Pope Pius IX on 29 September 1850, the Catholic hierarchy was restored on a regular pattern to England and Wales. Much of what had been known as the Vicariate Apostolic of the Northern District became the new See of Hexham. Bishop William Hogarth was appointed to be the first bishop of the new diocese, and as such, required a church in which to place his seat or cathedra. St Mary’s was chosen for this purpose and thus it gained the status of a cathedral church in 1850, becoming the first cathedral in Newcastle, as the Anglican St. Nicholas’ Cathedral didn’t become a cathedral until 1882.
On 21st August 1860, the Cathedral was dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption. The name of the see was changed in 1861 to Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. Since then, eleven further bishops have been installed in St Mary’s as Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle.
With a bequest from the estate of Elizabeth Dunn, in 1872 a tower and steeple designed by Dunn & Hansom were added.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary%27s_Cathedral,_Newcastle_upon_Tyne
