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Monument Types

• HOUSE (POST MEDIEVAL - 1540 AD to 1900 AD (between))

Associated Events

• 10 College Green (Ref: WCM100024)
• 10 College Green (Deanery terrace) (Ref: WCM100286)
• 10 College Green (Deanery porch) (Ref: WCM100287)

Protected Status

• Listed Building

Full description

COLLEGE GREEN (South West side) Nos.10 AND 1OA
The Deanery (No.10) and Office (No.10A) with attached walls
SO85SW
620-1/3/163
22/05/54
(Formerly Listed as: COLLEGE GREEN
(South side) No.10)
GV II*

Also known as: The Ovens.

House, now Deanery and office, with attached walls. c1700, with earlier origins, extended c1870 to left and rear. Built onto part of C13 remains of Worcester Castle; later additions and alterations including extensions and c1870 range at left for Canon Alfred Barry by AE Perkins. Main range of red brick in Flemish bond with pinkish-brown brick to left; stone sills; hipped plain tile roofs and tall brick stacks, banded and with stepped oversailing courses and pots, the main range has lateral and rear stacks, the left range has rear stack.

PLAN: double depth to main range with central stairhall; the ground level at rear is much lower, but this is occupied by Castle remains which are visible only from the rear. 2 storeys plus attic, 5 first-floor windows with range to left of 3 storeys, 1 first-floor window. Main range has moulded plinth. Continuous first-floor band, moulded at right.

Mainly 6/6 sashes throughout in flush frames and with flat arches of gauged brick and sills. To second floor at left a 2/2 sash. Crowning modillion eaves. Main range has 3 box dormers with 3/3 sashes. Entrances: main range has central entrance a 6-panel door, the lower panels flush beaded, the upper panels raised and fielded, within plain architrave and with overlight with margin-lights; within projecting porch with tooled pilasters, frieze and cornice. Left range has off-centre right entrance a 4-raised-and-fielded-panel door with overlight and hood on corbel brackets. Rear raised on 5-bay blind arcade of coursed stone said to be part of Worcester Castle. The segmental arches probably date from the building of the terrace in the early C18, the wall having formed a revetment to a former medieval structure. Some tall 2/4 sashes, 6/6 and 9/9 sashes.

INTERIOR: stone flagged floor to hallway. Dogleg staircase to full height has closed string and moulded ramped handrail; from ground to first floor are substantial barleytwist-on-vase balusters, then rod-on-bobbin balusters, 2 per tread. 2-raised-and-fielded panel doors in panelled reveals. Ground floor: front room to right has marble fireplace and cast-iron Victorian grate; late Victorian fireplace at rear; further Neo-classical Revival fireplace. Four 8-raised-and-fielded-panel doors. To first floor the front room has fitted cupboard with S- and H-hinges and doors made from probably C17 panelling. Some 4-panel doors, some moulded cornices; Regency marble fireplace. Shutters to some windows. Stone-walled basement includes fine late C16 ovolo moulded door surround with urn stops. Basement has stone walling and C18 brick vaulting.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: kitchen garden wall and front boundary wall at left, approximately 3 metres high. The coped stone walls which flank the rear garden are late medieval in date, and comprise part of the wall listed under Kleve Walk (qv, item 697).

HISTORICAL NOTE: Knowles notes that the whole of the south side of College Green had been service buildings to the medieval monastery, and that it is probable that this dwelling occupies the site of the bakehouse. By 1820 the Dean and Chapter had let it to Elizabeth Marriott, then to Henry Grape. c1821-1870 it was sub-let to Frances Maria Kilvert. In 1870 it was enlarged for Canon Alfred Barry (son of the architect Charles Barry) who borrowed money from Queen Anne's Bounty; the cathedral architect, A E Perkins carried out the work.

All the listed buildings in College Green are part of a significant group forming the setting for Worcester Cathedral (qv) to the north side. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Worcestershire: Harmondsworth: 1968-1985: 316j Knowles JM: College Green: Worcester. 1800-1900.: Worcester: 1995-: 22-3) {1}.

Joan Knowles records the traditional name of this house as The Ovens. It was allotted to the Stall 9 canon in 1872 when his house (on the site of the reredorter) was demolished. It was enlarged for Canon Berry and a new dining room, drawing room and bedrooms were added {2}.

Sub-structure now listed as separate monument (WCM 96620).
In 1990 the stonework of the sub-structure was cleaned and renovated; recording and excavation (WCM 100286) took place at the same time. The north-south wall was found to have a chamfered plinth, and was suggested to be of 12th-century date. The upper part of its two north bays was of different character, with larger blocks coursed differently to the remainder. Excavation at the base of the wall showed that it was founded on sand, with natural mudstone lying c.0.3 metres below. Excavation on top of the terrace showed that the surviving top of the north-south wall is 0.85m wide, contrasting with a width of the top of the north return wall of 1.4 metres. There was evidence of a return wall at the south end of the building but it had been disturbed by later building. The east (inside) face of the northern bays of the north-south wall was very rough, and with clay immediately behind it; that end of the wall was seen as a simple retaining structure. At the southern end, the inside of the wall was ashlar faced, with evidence of three double-splayed windows of late medieval character; this end of the wall was interpreted as having been rebuilt in the late medieval period. A cellar had also been inserted at the north end of the wall, and a window inserted through the north return wall, in the (?) 15th or 16th century. No.10 College Green and its terrace are shown on the Buck Brothers' panorama the 'South-West Prospect of Worcester' in 1732 in their present form {3}. Add Buck as source ref

Commentary. Although interpreted at the time as possible remains of Worcester Castle (WCM 96017), the masonry sub-structure of no.10 seems more likely to be a 13th-century or later re-engineering of the natural escarpment and anything done to it by castle earthworks. As a substantial retaining wall it is likely to have been built to provide additional support for a building above, and this seems to be the implication of the ?original cellar or undercroft at the south end, together with the apparently inserted cellar at the north end. The main north-south retaining wall (and thus the later standing building) is also aligned perpendicularly with the close boundary to the south, increasing the probability that the structure is post-1217, post-castle.

Cross-reference to: 96357, riverside precinct wall (south)

Sources and further reading

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