John Rylands Library I listed status in 1994, is maintained by the University of Manchester and open for library readers and visitors. Enriqueta Rylands purchased a site on Deansgate for her memorial library in 1889 and commissioned a design from architect Basil Champneys. Rylands commissioned the Manchester academic Alice Cooke to index the vast library of the 2nd Earl Spencer which she had purchased and another collection of autographs. Mrs Rylands intended the library to be principally theological, and the building, which is a fine example of Victorian Gothic, has the appearance of a church, although the concept was of an Oxford college
Mark Rylands Mark Rylands Mark James Rylands (born 11 July 1961) is a British Anglican bishop. From 2009 until 2018, he was the area Bishop of Shrewsbury in the Church of England. Rylands was born on 11 July 1961, the son of Michael Rylands and Denise née Bates. Michael was sometime Vicar of Wilton, Wiltshire, Rector of Malpas, Cheshire and honorary canon of Chester and Denise a scion of the Bates baronets (of Bellefield): her grandfather was Edward, 2nd Baronet. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and the College of St Hild and St Bede, Durham University, the latter whence he graduated