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Monument Types

• CATHEDRAL CLOSE (MEDIEVAL - 1066 AD to 1539 AD (between))
• CATHEDRAL CLOSE (POST MEDIEVAL - 1540 AD to 1900 AD (between))

Associated Events

• 14 College Green (garden) (Ref: WCM100285)
• Sewer repair trench, College Green (Ref: WCM100539)
• Cathedral Close (various) (Ref: WCM100555)
• Cathedral priory dorter (Ref: WCM100817)
• Cathedral priory dorter and reredorter (Ref: WCM100818)
• Watergate Geophysical survey (Ref: WCM100923)

Full description

Open space of about 5000 square metres to the south of the cathedral church and cloisters, extending from the Edgar Tower (WCM 96351) on the east side to the watergate (WCM 96349) to the west.

A mostly flat area, but with levels dropping sharply at the western edge down towards the water gate. College Green is usually taken to represent the court (curia) or outer court of the medieval cathedral priory, and to have assumed much of its present form in the early 13th century following the partition of the castle site (WCM 96017) and the re-acquisition of cathedral land after 1217.

According to Willis's reconstruction of the monastic geography the north side of the green was occupied by the claustral and other principal monastic buildings (refectory WCM 96377; kitchen WCM 96382; Guesten Hall ranges WCM 96373) and by the houses and lodgings of senior members of the priory (WCM 96375, 96366). The south side of the green was the site of mainly ancillary and service ranges though 'of the ancient buildings on the south side of College Green, nothing is recorded' other than the name 'Ovens' associated with no.10 College Green (WCM 96364) {1}.

Noake follows Willis in his attribution of present buildings to monastic offices, and service buildings around the south side of the green. Of College Green itself, Noake says 'there was probably a green in this court from the time of its restoration to the monastery. In 1680 there were rails round it and a globe lantern erected. Lime-trees were in that year brought …and planted around the green… The trees were diligently watered and the grass mown; the limes however seem to have perished by the year 1723, when young elms were planted there. On public occasions bonfires were lit in the green, and mention is made of an alcove and wilderness (maze) there' {2}.

The map sequence.
Speed's map of 1610 shows it as a crudely drawn open area surrounded by conventionalised buildings. The 1651 map editions are more difficult to interpret as they show the green in the manner of a backland area between rows of houses to north and south, with plots extending into the interior and a linear feature (a fence, wall or watercourse) running east-west down the middle. This may simply be bad drawing or it may be that it had some basis in reality, and the area was not a single open space in the medieval period. Interpreters of the medieval documentary sources (Willis, Greatorex) give no medieval equivalent to College Green {3}. A watercourse running through the green might also have been a successor to an earlier infilled ditch or ditches (see below). Doharty's map of 1741 and Green's of 1764 both show the green as a formally laid out garden, walled, with trees around the edge and walks/beds in the interior. Young's map of 1779 shows a featureless interior with trees around the edge, as does the first edition O.S. of 1886. Illustrations suggest the trees were felled in the 1914-18 war.

A geophysical (resistivity) survey of the green in 1999 by Victoria Lee Wright (WCM 100555) found a strong east-west linear feature, probably a ditch or parallel ditches separated by 'compacted ground'; disturbed ground extended to a depth in excess of 4.4m. The investigator compared this result with the east-west feature shown by the 1651 map {4}. There is a possibility that the linear feature detected is part of the northern defences of the castle, assumed to have been levelled by the cathedral when or after it reacquired its land in 1217 (see WCM 96350, 96017). The ditch or ditches may be reflected by or may have made use of a hollow in the ground profile approaching the medieval watergate. Geophysical survey immediately behind the watergate (WCM 100923) suggested the presence of an infilled negative feature interpreted by the investigators as a probable dock or slipway but possibly part of, or an adaptation of, the castle ditch.

(note: this number previously allocated to west claustral range)

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Sources and further reading

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