Chelmsford Cathedral, formally titled the Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin, St Peter and St Cedd, is an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

cathedral in the city of

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, St Peter and St Cedd. It became a cathedral when the Anglican

Diocese of Chelmsford The Diocese of Chelmsford is a Church of England diocese, part of the Province of Canterbury. It was created on 23 January 1914 from part of the Diocese of St Albans. It covers Essex and part of East London. Since 1984 it is divided into three ...

was created in 1914 and is the seat of the Bishop of Chelmsford.

History

Parish church

The

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

of St Mary the Virgin in Chelmsford was probably first built along with the town around 1200. It was rebuilt in the 15th and early 16th centuries (starting around 1520), with walls of

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

rubble, stone and

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

. The church has a tower with a spire and a ring of thirteen bells, twelve of which were cast by John Warner & Sons at Cripplegate, and were dedicated in 1913. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

partially collapsed in 1800, and was rebuilt by the County architect John Johnson, retaining the Perpendicular design, but using

Coade stone Coade stone or ''Lithodipyra'' or ''Lithodipra'' () is stoneware that was often described as an artificial stone in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was used for moulding neoclassical architecture, neoclassical statues, a ...

piers and tracery, and a plaster ceiling. The upper part of the chancel was rebuilt in 1878.

Cathedral

In 1914 the church became the cathedral for the newly created diocese of Chelmsford. The south porch was extended in 1953 to mark Anglo-American friendship after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and the many US airmen stationed in Essex. In 1954, the cathedral was additionally dedicated to Saints Peter and Cedd. In 1983, the interior of the cathedral was extensively refurbished, with a new floor, seating, altar, bishop's throne,

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

and artwork. In 1994 and 1995 two

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

s were installed, the first in the nave and the second in the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

. The

stained-glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

windows were all installed in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2000 a sculpture, ''Christ in Glory'' by Peter Eugene Ball, was placed above the chancel arch. In 2004 two further major works of art were commissioned, and are now in place: Mark Cazelet's ''Tree of Life'' painting in the North Transept, and Philip Sanderson's altar frontal in the Mildmay Chapel. The cathedral celebrates its links with Thomas Hooker, who was Chelmsford Town Lecturer between 1626 and 1629. He fled to the New World because of his

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

views and founded the town of

Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

and was one of the founders of American

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

Dean and Chapter

As of July 2024:Chelmsford Cathedral — Contact Directory
(Accessed 10 February 2019) Cathedral Clergy *Dean - The Very Revd Dr Jessica Martin *Canon Precentor - The Revd Canon Sebastian Harries *Canon for Education and Safeguarding - The Revd Canon Kate Moore Cathedral Chapter * The Dean (Chair) * Canon Precentor * Dr Elizabeth Henry (Senior Non-Executive Member) * Lorna Quinn (Non-Executive Member) * Robert Eveleigh (Non-Executive Member) * Dawn Weddell (Non-Executive Member) * Adedamola Aboaba (Non-Executive Member) * Tim Matthews (Non-Executive Member) * Andrew Copp (Non-Executive Member) * Valerie Anderson (Cathedral Warden)

Music

*The Cathedral music department, led by the Director of Music, includes the Assistant Director of Music, Organ Scholar, PA to Residentiary Canons and Choir Welfare Assistant. *The Cathedral Choir consists of boys and girls, a combination of school age and postgraduate choral scholars, lay clerks and volunteer singers. The Choir sing Evensong on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays and the Choral Eucharist on Sundays. *The Voluntary Choir, now called the Cathedral Singers, was formed in 2001 and sing at services outside of Choir term times. *The Cathedral Choir contributed choral passages to "I Believe in You", a track on

Talk Talk Talk Talk were an English band formed in 1981 by Mark Hollis (vocals, guitar, piano), Lee Harris (drums), Paul Webb (bass), and Simon Brenner (keyboards). Initially a synth-pop group, Talk Talk's first two albums, '' The Party's Over'' (198 ...

's 1988 album '' Spirit of Eden''.

Cathedral organs

*The Nave Organ is situated at the west end of the cathedral under the Tower. It is a four-manual instrument with mechanical action built by

Mander Organs N.P Mander Limited later Mander Organs Limited was an England, English pipe organ maker and refurbisher based in London. Although well known for many years in the organ building industry, they achieved wider notability in 2004 with the refurbi ...

in 1994. *The Chancel Organ is a two manual mechanical instrument built by

in 1995. It incorporates 19th-century pipework by Hill and Holdich and is widely admired for its character and versatility. The Nave Organ's great, swell, solo and pedal divisions can be played via an electric link from the Chancel Organ console. A specification of the organs can be found at th
National Pipe Organ Register

Directors of Music

*182? Charles Ambrose *1876 Frederick Frye *1945 Roland Middleton (later Organist of

Chester Cathedral Chester Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral and the mother church of the Diocese of Chester. It is located in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. The cathedral, formerly the abbey church of a Benedictine monastery dedicated to Saint ...

) *1949 Stanley Vann (later Master of the Music at

Peterborough Cathedral Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew, and formerly known as Peterborough Abbey or St Peter's Abbey, is a cathedral in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in the United Kingdom. The seat of the Church ...

) *1953 Derrick Edward Cantrell (later Organist of

Manchester Cathedral Manchester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George, in Manchester, England, is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Manchester, seat of the Bishop of Manchester and the c ...

) *1962 Philip Ledger (later Director of Music at

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

) *1965 John Willam Jordan *1981 Graham Elliott *1999 Peter Nardone (later Organist and Director of Music at

Worcester Cathedral Worcester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Christ and Blessed Mary the Virgin, is a Church of England cathedral in Worcester, England, Worcester, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Worcester and is the Mother Church# ...

) *2012 James Davy, until October 2023 ob title changed to Organist and Master of the Choristers in 2013*2023 Thomas Corns (Interim Director of Music) *2024 Emma Gibbins

Assistant Organists

* Geoffrey Becket *1963 John Jordan *1966 Peter Cross *1968 David Sparrow *1986 Timothy Allen *1991 Neil Weston

Assistant Directors of Music

*1999 Edward Wellman *2003 Robert Poyser (later Director of Music at

Beverley Minster Beverley Minster, otherwise known as the Parish Church of Saint John and Saint Martin, in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, is a parish church in the Church of England. It is one of the largest parish churches in the UK, larger than one-thir ...

) *2008 Tom Wilkinson (later Organist at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

, Scotland) *2009 Oliver Waterer (later Organist at

Selby Abbey Selby is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse, Yorkshire, River Ouse. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, it had a population of 17,193. The town w ...

*2013 Laurence Lyndon-Jones *2019 Hilary Punnett *2023 Samuel Bristow

Gallery

File:Chelmsford Cathedral Nave Ceiling, Essex, UK - Diliff.jpg, The ceiling of the nave File:Chelmsford Cathedral Chancel Ceiling, Essex, UK - Diliff.jpg, The ceiling of the chancel File:Chelmsford Cathedral Nave 2, Essex, UK - Diliff.jpg, The nave looking towards the west File:Pieta, Chelmsford Cathedral.jpg, The Bombed Child by Georg Ehrlich

References

Bibliography

* ''Essex Chronicle'' newspaper article, 14 July 2011, pp. 4–5.

External links

Chelmsford Cathedral website
{{Authority control Churches in Chelmsford (town) Anglican cathedrals in England Grade I listed churches in Essex Grade I listed cathedrals English Gothic architecture in Essex Provosts and Deans of Chelmsford 16th-century Church of England church buildings