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Monument Types

• CATHEDRAL (EARLY MEDIEVAL - 411 AD to 1065 AD (between))

Associated Events

• Worcester Cathedral: Excavation, crypt S aisle (Ref: WCM100307)
• Worcester Cathedral: GPR survey, east end of nave (Ref: WCM100312)

Full description

10th century cathedral church.

Documentary evidence.
The cathedral church of St Mary had been built by 983 at the latest, close to St Peter's and in its cemetery (see WCM 96368). Whether it was newly built by St Oswald after he became bishop in 961, or had co-existed with St Peter's for some time, or from the beginning, has been disputed. Richard Gem suggested St Mary's predated Oswald's episcopate but was rebuilt by him and finished in 983 {1}. Chris Dyer presumed that it had been built from scratch by Oswald {2}. John Blair has suggested that pairs of churches with St Peter and St Mary dedications were the norm in Anglo-Saxon minster precincts and likey to be an original, or early accretive, arrangement {3}.

Gem discusses Oswald's previous building campaigns at Ramsey Abbey (a cruciform church with western and eastern towers, nave, sanctuary over crypt and transeptal porticus) and the possible correspondences between St Mary's and the reformed Deerhurst. St Oswald was buried in St Mary's 'on the south side of the church near the altar', and over his tomb was erected 'a work of wonderful workmanship'. In 1002-3 a new shrine was built there for his relics. William of Malmesbury adds information about one of the Worcester churches when Wulfstan was prior before 1062. He had constructed 'over the roof of the church a fabric in which the bells might hang'; and he used to shut himself away to pray in the western porticus of the church, where was the altar of All Saints (one of eighteen in the church), with the monument of the Lord's Cross'. With Wulfstan's enlargement of the community by 1084 from 12 to nearly 50 monks there was an urgent need to rebuild the monastery buildings. By May 1089 enough of the new cathedral church had been completed for the monks to begin to use it, and William of Malmesbury, in an account derived from an eye-witness, says that when the new church was usable, 'the old church which blessed Oswald had built was ordered to be unroofed and destroyed'; Wulfstan's regret at destroying 'the work of saints' was also recorded. The dedication was transferred to the new building, as was the shrine of St Oswald, which seems to have been portable. The shrine, which had originally been made by Oswald himself for the relics of St Wilfrid, was embellished by Wulfstan {4}.

Archaeological evidence.
The general assumption is that St Mary's lay within the footprint of Wulfstan's new cathedral church (WCM 96371), somewhere west of the choir that would have been built first, and completed by 1089. GPR survey by Barker/Stratscan in 1992 in the eastern bays of the nave detected features that may be associated with a previous building (WCM 100312). Excavation within the cathedral crypt (WCM 100307) found 'a thick layer of concreted mortar and pebbles' 20cms below the base of one of the central columns of the south aisle, under a layer of rubble including a pre-Conquest sculptural fragment. Barker suggested the mortar surface could be a floor belonging to a crypt below one of the Anglo-Saxon churches {5}.

Sources and further reading

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