About CathedralS

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Put simply, a cathedral is the location of the seat of the bishop - the 'cathedra' is the Latin term for a chair and the cathedral is where the bishop's throne is located. The cathedral is thus the principal church of a diocese.

A 'diocese' is an administrative area overseen by a bishop, subdivisions of a province. For the Anglican Church of England there are two provinces, Canterbury and York, whilst the Church in Wales and the Church of Scotland are each a province. The Church of Ireland consists of two provinces, Dublin and Armagh. Each province has an archbishop except in Scotland where the concept of bishop is replaced by a wider framework of elders.

The Roman Catholic Church in the United Kingdom is also similarly structured with bishops and archbishops and their associated cathedrals including in Scotland, and the Episcopal Church in Scotland also has bishops.

A list of cathedrals in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland would include:

Church of England: Birmingham, Blackburn, Bradford, Bristol, Bury St. Edmonds, Canterbury, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Chester, Chichester, Coventry, Derby, Durham, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester, Guildford, Hereford, Leicester, Litchfield, Lincoln, Liverpool, St. Paul's London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Oxford (Christ Church), Peel (Isle of Man), Peterborough, Portsmouth, Ripon, Rochester, St. Albans, Sheffield, Southwark, Southwell, Truro, Wakefield, Wells, Winchester, Worcester, York;

Church of Scotland: Aberdeen, Brechin, Dormoch, Dunblane, Dunkeld, St. Giles Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kirkwall, Lismore;

Church in Wales: Bangor, Brecon, Llandaff, Newport, St. Asaph, St. Davids.

Church of Ireland (Province of Armagh): Armagh, Belfast, Clogher, (London)Derry, Down, Dromore, Enniskillen, Killala, Kilmore, Lisburn, Raphoe, Sligo, Tuam;

Roman Catholic in England: Aldershot, Arundel, Birmingham, Brentwood, Clifton, Lancaster, Liverpool, Newcastle, Norwich, Northampton, Nottingham, Middlesborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Salford, Sheffield, Shrewsbury, Southwark, Westminster;

Roman Catholic in Scotland: Aberdeen, Ayr, Dundee, Edinburgh, Oban, Glasgow, Motherwell, Paisley;

Roman Catholic in Wales: Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham;

Roman Catholic in Armagh (including Northern Ireland): Armagh, Belfast, Cavan, (London)Derry, Letterkenny, Longford, Monaghan, Mullingar, Newry;

Scottish Episcopal Church: Aberdeen, Dundee, St. Mary's Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Millport, Oban, Perth.

There are also a number of other cathedrals in the United Kingdom serving other Christian demoninations.

Some places of worship were at one time were designated cathedrals but have lost that status as part of diocesan reorganisation over time.

Westminster Abbey is not a cathedral as it is not the seat of a bishop. Instead it is a 'Royal Perculiar', a church that is directly controlled by the Monarch and so outside the administrative structure of the Church of England. St. George's Chapel, Windsor, is another example of a Royal Perculiar. Although not strictly cathedrals, they both have appointed 'Surveyors to the Fabric' who by convention are invited to join the Cathedral Architects Association.

An abbey is a monastic community or nunnery/convent forming part of an enclosed religious order, for example Benedictines, Cistercians, Carthusians, Franciscans and Premonstratensians, and were not automatically part of a normal diocesan system designed to support the religious observance of the wider population, although some abbeys and priories were patrons of parish churches. An abbey was governed by an abbot or abbotess; a priory was administered by a prior or prioress within the oversight of an abbey. In England most abbeys and priories were dissolved at the time of the Reformation and King Henry VIII, but some new abbeys, priories and similar communities have been created since the time of the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829.