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Monument Types

• CATHEDRAL PRECINCT (POST MEDIEVAL - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Associated Events

• GPR survey, W of Edgar Tower (Ref: WCM100170)
• 11 Edgar Street (Ref: WCM100815)
• Cathedral roundabout (Ref: WCM101135)
• War Memorials, Cathedral, Study (Ref: WCM102710)
• Worcester Cathedral west window (Ref: WCM102217)
• Cathedral south precinct wall (Ref: WCM102218)

Full description

General number for the historic cathedral precinct, containing the cathedral church, cemetery and associated buildings, and the medieval Cathedral Priory.

Boundaries.
The earliest surviving record of the close boundaries comes from 1460, when Bishop Carpenter detailed them in his denunciation of a breach of the monks rights of sanctuary. The city authorities respected the same boundaries in a perambulation of the city undertaken in 1497; a more detailed description dates from 1640 {1} {2} {3} These remained in force well into the 19th century, and were recorded cartographically by Doharty (1741), Young (1779), and the Ordnance Survey (1883-6). The 1640 survey was quite specific in excluding the bishops' palace (WCM 96015) and its enclosure (WCM 96016) from the close, but it is also clear that the palace was considered to be outside the city, part of the parish of St Michael in Bedwardine (see Doharty and Young's maps of 1741 and 1779).

The Cathedral church and cloisters (WCM 96371-96380).
The cathedral church and its surviving or known claustral buildings were disposed within a narrow, restricted area measuring less than c.100 metres north to south and c.200 metres west to east, the claustral buildings extending right down the slope to the river. The arrangement is unusually cramped, and the major departures from standard Benedictine planning (the west-east dormitory, WCM 96379, reredorter, WCM 96380, and the infirmary, WCM 96381, all to the west of the cloister) are attributable to the constraints imposed by the castle (WCM 96017) impinging from the south, the needs of water supply and drainage, and the necessity of public access to the priory complex from the east {4}. The earliest securely-dated fabric in the cathedral church and claustral buildings is Norman Romanesque - in the crypt, transepts, presbytery and the west end of the nave - the earliest of which belongs to Wulfstan's building campaign of the 1080s-90s. Most of the cathedral choir belongs to a rebuilding begun in 1224, and much of the nave to a rebuilding commencing in 1317 (see WCM 96371). The cloister is basically Norman with much rebuilding in the 14th and 15th centuries, though there is also a possibility of earlier fabric (see below). Parts of the east range are attributable to Wulfstan's work, the chapter house (WCM 96372) and maybe the refectory being slightly later. The refectory (WCM 96377), occupying the south range, has a superstructure of 1372 over an earlier multi-phase/?late 12th-century undercroft. Beyond the cloister to the west, running down to the river, are the remains of the Norman dormitory and reredorter (WCM 96379, 96380). To the east of the cloister are the remains of the 14th-century Guesten Hall (WCM 96373) and the site of the prior's hall, lodgings, chapel, and garden (WCM 96375) {5} {6} {7} {8}.

The pre-Conquest cathedrals: documentary evidence: (WCM 96368, 96369).
The first cathedral church of St Peter (WCM 96368) had been built by the 690s. In 961 Oswald became bishop and by 983 had built or rebuilt a church dedicated to St Mary (WCM 96369), close to the earlier church and in its cemetery. Oswald's throne was still in St Peter's in 991 and its presbytery was enlarged after c.1040; the church is assumed to have remained in use until demolition at some stage of Wulfstan's great rebuilding campaign begun in 1084. St Oswald was buried in St Mary's and his relics enshrined there in 1002-3. Wulfstan became prior in the 1050s and added a belfry to one of the two churches {9} {10} {11}.

The pre-Conquest cathedrals: archaeological evidence (WCM 96368, 96369).
A series of excavations (WCM 100192) to the east and south of the chapter house (WCM 96372) have uncovered a circular wall outside and concentric to the Norman chapter house, with radial internal walls and clasping buttresses of Romanesque type opposite those of the chapter house. The wall has been shown stratigraphically to be of the same date as, or earlier than, the Norman chapter house. The excavators suggest the possibility that the wall represents part of a rotunda added to one of the pre-Conquest cathedral churches {12}. Other hints of a possible pre-1084 structure south of the present cathedral are the slight angle of the refectory in relation to the rest of the cloisters and the church, and the incorporation in its undercroft of what appear to be parts of earlier buildings on slightly different alignments {13}. Geophysical survey beneath the present cathedral church nave has also indicated the presence of buried walls that could be associated with the pre-Conquest church of St Mary (see WCM 96369).

Early burials/cemetery (WCM 96384).
The earliest evidence of post-Roman activity is the pair of probably 7th-century inhumations beneath the refectory, excavated by Barker and Cubberley (WCM 100027). Circumstantial evidence from the excavation and the apparently high status of at least one of the burials suggests that they may have been in or near an important church, possibly a predecessor of the cathedral church of St Peter and/or that church itself. Later pre-Conquest inhumations have also been excavated from the eastern end of the refectory and the area outside (WCM 96384, WCM 100267, 100768, 100769) {14} {15}.

The lay cemetery (WCM 96385).
The area of the cathedral close lying between the church and the city was occupied by the lay cemetery, known in the post-medieval period as College Yard. Within the cemetery stood a number of ecclesiastical buildings, including the church of St Michael in Bedwardine (WCM 96050), the bell tower or clochium (WCM 96359) and the charnel chapel of St Thomas (WCM 96384). Tenements encroaching on the cemetery around St Michael's were removed in the course of the 19th century {16}. Access to the lay cemetery from the city was via two entries through the properties along Lich Street: the principal entrance was the College Gate (WCM 96352) at the end of the High Street; the Lich Gate (WCM 96353) provided pedestrian access opposite St Michael's, the cemetery chapel. A small sample of the north-west corner of the lay cemetery was excavated in the cellar of No.5a College Yard, (WCM 100299). This revealed extremely dense intercut burials of adults and children and a possible multiple grave, possibly within an area of the cemetery used for the poorer section of the city population {17}.

College Green (WCM 96378).
The open space to the south of the cathedral church and its claustral ranges, lined by buildings along its west, south, and east sides. There was formerly a north range also, facing south, from the refectory (WCM 96377) east to the Edgar Tower (WCM 96351). College Green was the outer or Great Court of the medieval Cathedral Priory. The buildings on the south side of College Green probably occupy the site of, and may incorporate the remains of, the priory service and ancillary buildings. Obedientaries' accounts survive and give insights into the number and function of buildings in the close, though many details of the planning of the priory remain unknown {18}. Nearest the gate was the complex of buildings accommodating the prior and his household staff (WCM 96375), next to the Guesten Hall (WCM 96373). The Edgar Tower (WCM 96351), also known as the great gatehouse or St Mary's Gate, was the principal entrance to the monastery. At the west end of College Green the ground slopes sharply down towards the river and the surviving monastic Water Gate of 1378 (WCM 96349).

Relationship with Worcester Castle (WCM 96017).
Contemporary documentary evidence records that the monastic cemetery, archaeologically demonstrated in the College Green area, was bisected by the construction of the Norman castle in the 1060s. This appears to be confirmed by geophysical survey on College Green (WCM 100555), which located a possible double ditch system consistent with the northern perimeter of the castle bailey. These defences may have returned to the river via the partly surviving and terraced defile occupied by the Water Gate. The Cathedral Priory's land was restored to it in 1217 when the present southern precinct boundary was established. Part of a building dated to the late 12th century survives on the S side of College Green and is thought to represent a castle building later reused by the priory (WCM 96619).

Cathedral Close and Priory precinct walls (WCM 96354-96358).
In 1236-7 the bishop was instructed to crenellate his section of the riverside wall; in 1271 he was licenced to crenellate the cathedral close; in 1369 the prior was licenced to crenellate the priory {19}. The relationship of these events to the physical remains is not clear. A section of the sandstone precinct wall (WCM 96355) survives south of the Edgar Tower and its line to the west is well defined, though no fabric survives above ground (WCM 96356). Parts of the riverside retaining walls are of medieval character (WCM 96357, 96358). A substantial sandstone wall (WCM 96354) also separates the east end of the cathedral church from College Precincts but there is no evidence that it completely enclosed the church to separate it from the lay cemetery.

The Cathedral Close: relationship with surroundings.
The historic close boundaries (see above) enclosed areas of secular property on the north and east sides. Tenements along the Lich Street frontage were probably deliberate cemetery encroachments promoted by the cathedral in the 13th century to generate new rents. The tenements on Sidbury and Friar Street, and College Precincts (surviving) are probably superimposed over former burials (see WCM 100158) but may date from the postulated re-planning of the precinct, together with its surroundings, in the 10th century {20} {21}.

A separate record 96622 has been created for the Priory precinct and should be correlated with this one - using 96350 for the modern (post-Reformation) precinct and 96622 for the pre-Conquest and medieval Priory.

Sources and further reading

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