Cathedral of St Mary: Cloister Range, Chapter House and Undercroft with Refectory, Worcester, Worcestershire

Description

WORCESTER

SO85SW COLLEGE STREET
620-1/3/706 (South West side)
22/05/54 Cathedral of St Mary:
Cloister range, Chapter
House & Undercroft with
Refectory
(Formerly Listed as:
Cathedral of St Mary)

GV I

Cloister group S of cathedral church, remains of Benedictine
monastery domestic buildings. Parts of undercroft probably
pre-Norman, cloister laid out at the time of Wulfstan's
rebuild, 1084 onwards, E slype and W passage remain from this
time; Chapter House c1100-1110, central column replaced c1224,
whole refaced after 1336. Refectory mid C14. Cloister
fenestration restored by Perkins, 1862. Many stones used,
including Highley and Alveley sandstones and some Cotswold
oolite, vault severies in tufa. Lead roofs, slate to
Refectory.
CLOISTER: in four walks of 9-bays each, the S walk not at true
right angles to the remainder, resulting from layout of
pre-Norman abbey buildings. To the garth the bays are
identical, with a large 5-light 'Perpendicular' traceried
window above a continuous plinth and under a moulded string to
crenellated parapet; the bays are divided by square buttresses
with gables offset and crown, and the central bay to the W
walk has a door opening. Inside all walks have lierne
vaulting, with many varied decorative bosses. The interior
faces of the bays have deep buttresses, with panelled
intrados, pierced laterally except in the W walk, which was
the last one constructed; the corner piers are bolder than the
remainder. The inner walls are generally plain, with much
mixed masonry, the vaults being corbelled at their springings.
The N walk has 6 plain square buttresses, part of the Norman
wall to the nave S aisle. The first bay (W) has steps to a
central pair of plank doors in a 4-centred arch on responds,
and bay 9 has fine C19 doors with strap hinges in a richly
moulded pointed arch, approached by a C20 ramp. A continuous
bench runs between buttresses, and the vault corbels to the
middle bay are carved with a donkey with panniers and an
angel, respectively. The E walk, probably the earliest, has 2
plain bays, with very mixed masonry, the third bay having
glazed doors in a pointed arch to the Slype; the next 2 bays
have a
deep bench below very heavy voussoirs, with a plain door in
bay 6, and early arched openings in the last two. The first
bay in the S walk has a vaulted throughway under the
refectory, with a low door, right, to the undercroft. The rest
of the walk has several early square buttresses, steps and
landing to a door in 4-centred arch in bay 2, and a large door
in moulded early English arch to bay 8; various earlier
elements are visible in the masonry. The W walk has a C19 door
in a roll-mould pointed arch to bay 1, with the lavatorium
recess in the next 2 bays, and a blocked Norman doorway under
remnants of a flush arch to bay 4. The central bay has a
throughway, previously to the dormitory (now disappeared), in
a flat arch within moulded surround, and in the next 2 bays
are varied blocked openings, including wide 4-centred arches.
The last bay contains glazed doors (to the Cathedral shop) in
a pointed opening with chevron mould, on nook shafts. The W
passage, now the shop, has 4 bays of heavy quadripartite
ribbed vault, in part to a Norman blind arcade, with a 3-light
opening at the W end. The E slype, immediately adjoining the S
transept is of very early work, probably of the time of
Wulfstan, but with some detail looking earlier, in 2 groined
bays carried on blind arcading to monolithic half-columns on
primitive looking bases and caps; a plain high pointed arch
leads through to the exterior at the E end, and a lesser arch
to a passage parallel with a side of the Chapter house.
CHAPTER HOUSE: a circular building of approx 18.3m (60ft)
diameter, with central column, but rebuilt externally to
octagonal form. The exterior, mainly in pink sandstone, has
4-light windows set deep, in flush surrounds, below a small
window slit; bays are divided by square buttresses with
stepped inset near the head, under a hollow-mould string to
plain parapet and saddle-back coping. The N side is linked to
the S transept by 2 storey C14 buildings, the upper level with
treasury. Entrance is centred to the mid bay of the E cloister
walk, the C14 door flanked by niches, and with tracery above.
Inside, the central column, in limestone on a Purbeck base,
carries 10 ribs to the plastered groined vault over the main
windows, those abutting the transept being in blank tracery.
The lower half is early masonry in alternate green and brown
bands, with a series of 7 very shallow niches to each bay
having interlaced round arched heads under a continuous string
course; the bays are divided by Norman pillars with cushion
capitals supporting the (later) vaulting. Formerly a
continuous bench was carried all round, but this was cut away
to accommodate the shelves of the Cathedral Library, in 1641.
The door bay has a pair of C19 doors in a moulded surround
with 4-centred head, and, slightly offset to its left are the
remains of the round
head to the original doorway, before the remodelling of the
cloister.
REFECTORY AND UNDERCROFT: this runs the full length of the
cloister S walk. To the S it is completely exposed, the main
hall having 5 large 3-light Decorated windows to stopped
drips, under a moulded string and plain parapet. The lower
area has, at the left-hand end, a doorway in rich moulded
pointed arch, on 6 steps, then a series of flat Norman
buttresses under a continuous offset sill band, and, far
right, a fine Norman door in recessed cloister through a
barrel vaulted passage having a low doorway, left, to arched
heads to deep set windows between buttresses, lighting the
undercroft. The ends have corner buttresses with 2 offsets,
and the E wall has a square window with curvilinear tracery
set deep to a moulded surround with 4-centred head; an offset
string with 2 flat buttresses corresponds with the undercroft
level, and the W end has a flying buttress, and large C14
window. The low pitched gables are simply coped, with a
crowning finial. On the N side, rising above the cloister S
walk, are 4 large C14 windows, a broad external stack between
bays 2 and 3 and smaller stack at 4/5, with octagonal corner
turret. The undercroft has been later subdivided, and is in
part inaccessible; it has a central row of bold Norman columns
carrying crudely formed groined vaults in 6-bays. The upper
hall, former refectory and now King's School College Hall, has
a wooden vaulted ceiling to stone corbel capitals, windows in
reveals with fluted nook-shafts. The walls to sill height have
C19 wood panelling, and at the W end is a complex C19 screens
with gallery; parquet floor. At the E end, built into the wall
below a high window, is a fine early C13 carved Christ in
Majesty, unfortunately much damaged by Reformation defacement;
also in the N wall, near the E end, the window rere-arch has
some vaulting, associated with a former reading desk.
HISTORY: there was a Benedictine house on the site in Saxon
times, but an almost complete rebuilding took place under
Wulfstan, starting in 1084, and some fragments remain in the
domestic ranges. The layout at Worcester was unusual, in that
the monks' dormitory was not in the customary position, over
the E cloister range, but projected westward from the centre
of the W walk, and was at the level of the cloister; other
elements were under the dormitory, as the ground falls away
rapidly here, and 3 further levels, including the necessarium,
could be built below it - fragments only of these works remain
(qv Monastic Ruins). Also on Map 16.

External Links

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