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| St Mary's Church, Chelmsford, chosen to be Cathedral |
Chelmsford Cathedral celebrates its
centenary in 2014. One hundred years ago
a new Anglican diocese was formed out of the See of St Albans. The massive expansion of London during the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had led to a number of
reorganisations. Until 1846 Essex was
part of the Diocese of London; for the 31 years which followed, the cathedral
church was Rochester for the vast majority of the parishes. Thomas Legh Claughton, who lived in Essex,
transferred as Bishop from Rochester to St Albans in 1877. This covered the whole of the counties of
Essex and Hertfordshire. By the early
twentieth century the Diocese had become unmanageable perhaps contributing, thought
Revd Reeve of Stondon Massey, to the untimely death of Bishop Festing who
suggested that it “is easier for a Bishop to know his Bradshaw than his
Bible”.
In 1905 a proposal was made to divide
the Sees of St Albans, Ely and Norwich into five areas, creating new Dioceses in Essex and
Suffolk. The Suffolk cathedral was to be
situated at Bury St Edmunds. The Essex
See was to be coterminous with the historic county boundary.
Several towns put forward submissions for cathedral city
status. On 5 March 1908 a meeting was
held at which 388 out of 461 benefices in the county, representing a population
of 1,088,857 (1901 census) submitted their preference for their choice of town
for the new cathedral.
“Twenty-eight benefices gave their first votes for Woodford,
Barking, Waltham Abbey or Thaxted.
“Chelmsford obtained the votes of 191 benefices, 256 clergy, and
428,375 laity.
“Colchester 101 benefices, 121 clergy, and 120,657 laity.
“West Ham 63 benefices, 119 clergy, and 321,677 laity.
“Much the same result was arrived at by the votes of public
meetings – namely, Chelmsford 65, Colchester 40, and West Ham 36.
“It was consequently resolved:
“‘That the church of Essex having in so unmistakable manner
expressed its opinion, Chelmsford shall be suggested to the authority as the most
suitable seat for the new diocese; that for the present no residence be
purchased for the Essex bishop, but that the sum of £10,000 be invested, and
the interest thereof be paid over to the bishop until the new see is
instituted, for the rent of the house’“[1].
It was probably the central geographic location which clinched the
choice of Chelmsford.
It took a considerable time for the Bill to pass through
Parliament, in part due to the poor constitutional relationship between the
House of Lords and House of Commons at that time. A General Enabling Bill was finally passed
“at the extreme end of the Parliamentary session in 1913: and, having received
the consent of the House of Lords and His most gracious Majesty King George V,
passed into Law on August 15th” [2].
Dr Watts-Ditchfield was consecrated as the first Bishop of
Chelmsford at St Pauls Cathedral in February 1914 and enthroned “in the Church
at Chelmsford, now to be known as the Cathedral … on Thursday, April 23rd” [3].
St Mary’s Church, Chelmsford, was thus
elevated to cathedral status. Plans to
enlarge the building to reflect its new role was made but these did not come to
fruition.
The town of Chelmsford had to wait
until 2012 for City status.
Andrew Smith
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