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Monument Types

• INHUMATION CEMETERY (EARLY MEDIEVAL - 411 AD to 1065 AD (between))

Associated Events

• Cathedral workshops (Ref: WCM100032)
• Worcester Cathedral: Watching brief, Guesten Hall lawn (Ref: WCM100267)

Full description

The earliest evidence of post-Roman activity from the cathedral close is the pair of probably 7th-century inhumations beneath the refectory, excavated by Barker and Cubberley in 1974 (WCM 100027; WCM 96621). 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.

22 later pre-Conquest inhumations, east-west and without grave goods, were excavated in 1970 in the South Passage, within the eastern end of the refectory and a further 14 in the area outside to the east (WCM 100267). These burials probably represent part of the late Saxon monastic cemetery {1}. This was referred to in the 1060s in the course of the dispute between St Wulfstan and the Norman sheriff, arising from the truncation of cathedral land and the monks' cemetery by the bailey ditch of the new castle {2}. If the bailey ditch was, as suggested by the results of geophysical survey (WCM 100555), running down the middle of College Green, this would confirm that the late 11th-century monks' cemetery was in the area of the north side of the green, in proximity to the refectory. With the completion of the new choir and the development of the claustral ranges in the late 11th century, the cemetery would probably have been disused and re-established around the church (WCM 96384).

Sources and further reading

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