Manchester No. 1 / Mametestre

There is an entry for Manchester [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SJ8398/manchester/] [accessed 22 July 2014], and it reports two churches and churchlands in it. The Victoria County History (Lancashire, vol. 4, 1911) notes on this church; "The endowment of St. Mary's Church at Manchester is recorded in Domesday Book. [...] The church was made collegiate in 1421–2 by Thomas, Lord La Warre, the rector and patron, in honour of St. Mary, St. Denis, and St. George. [...] From the time of its becoming a collegiate church in 1421 its history can be set forth with some completeness, and of work older than this date enough remains, or can be shown to have existed [...] The oldest work still standing is to be found in the west arch and lower parts of the walls of the Lady chapel and in the eastern responds of the quire arcades. It dates from c. 1330, and implies a lengthening, or rebuilding, of the chancel of the old parish church at this date [...] The oldest worked stone yet found on the site is the relief of an angel holding a scroll with an inscription, perhaps 10th-century work; but with this exception no details earlier than the 13th century have come to light. The traditions of the occupation of this or a neighbouring site in Saxon times by a wooden building, though embellished by a good deal of circumstantial evidence, seem to have no more solid foundation than the similar stories told of so many ancient sites in England. [...] A fine 13th-century church certainly existed here, and was perhaps not the first stone building on the site. [...] The registers begin in 1573." The present font is modern. [NB: we have no information on the font of the original church here.