Big plans afoot for Shrewsbury's cathedral

Officials at the Diocese of Shrewsbury have held discussions with architects over making changes to the building on Town Walls, although they are remaining tight-lipped on details.

They are also looking at making alterations to properties the diocese owns on nearby Belmont Road to establish living quarters for up to six training priests, who would spend a year carrying out duties at the cathedral.

The plans would also include a new First World War memorial inside the cathedral.

Canon Jonathan Mitchell, dean at Shrewsbury Cathedral, said the aim was to raise the profile of the Roman Catholic cathedral. He said more than 4,000 visitors came through the doors last year – excluding mass services – and said diocese chiefs hoped to build on that in the future.

But he said any proposals were still in the planning stage and nothing had yet been formalised.

He said: "We are just consulting architects and looking at what we can afford.

"The plans are in conjunction with the development of other properties the cathedral has on Belmont Road so we have a facility where we can take on six men who are thinking of priesthood so they can spend a year helping out at the cathedral.

"Last year we had somewhere in the region of 4,000 to 5,000 visitors, which is an increase on the year before.

"Those numbers are without the regular mass numbers. This is really good news for Shrewsbury.

"We are trying to encourage even more visitors by hoping to open the cathedral to the public as much as possible.

"We can't expand the footprint as we are Grade II listed and within the conservation boundary of Shrewsbury so we need to look at what we can do with the space we have."

Shrewsbury Cathedral, which has a full name of the Cathedral Church of Our Lady Help of Christians and St Peter of Alcantara, was opened in 1856.