Cathedral Of St Mary: Cloister Range, Chapter House And Undercroft With Refectory

This is a substantial cloister group south of the cathedral church, comprising the remains of the Benedictine monastery domestic buildings. Parts of the undercroft are probably pre-Norman. The cloister was laid out during Wulfstan's rebuilding campaign from 1084 onwards, with the eastern slype and western passage surviving from this period. The Chapter House dates from approximately 1100–1110, with its central column replaced around 1224 and the whole structure refaced after 1336. The Refectory is mid-14th century. The cloister fenestration was restored by Perkins in 1862. Many types of stone were used, including Highley and Alveley sandstones and some Cotswold oolite, with vault severies in tufa. The roofs are lead, with slate to the Refectory.

The Cloister

The cloister comprises four walks of nine bays each. The south walk is not at true right angles to the remainder, a result of the layout of the pre-Norman abbey buildings. Facing the garth, the bays are identical, each having a large five-light Perpendicular traceried window above a continuous plinth and beneath a moulded string to a crenellated parapet. The bays are divided by square buttresses with offset gables and crowns. The central bay of the west 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 west 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, and the vaults are corbelled at their springings.

The north walk has six plain square buttresses forming part of the Norman wall to the nave south aisle. The first bay (west) has steps to a central pair of plank doors in a four-centred arch on responds. Bay nine has fine 19th-century doors with strap hinges in a richly moulded pointed arch, approached by a 20th-century ramp. A continuous bench runs between the buttresses, and the vault corbels to the middle bay are carved with a donkey with panniers and an angel respectively.

The east walk, probably the earliest, has two plain bays with very mixed masonry. The third bay has glazed doors in a pointed arch leading to the Slype. The next two bays have a deep bench below very heavy voussoirs, with a plain door in bay six and early arched openings in the last two bays.

The first bay in the south walk has a vaulted throughway under the refectory, with a low door on the right to the undercroft. The rest of the walk has several early square buttresses, steps and a landing to a door in a four-centred arch in bay two, and a large door in a moulded Early English arch in bay eight. Various earlier elements are visible in the masonry.

The west walk has a 19th-century door in a roll-mould pointed arch to bay one, with the lavatorium recess in the next two bays, and a blocked Norman doorway under remnants of a flush arch in bay four. The central bay has a throughway (previously to the dormitory, now disappeared) in a flat arch within a moulded surround. In the next two bays are varied blocked openings, including wide four-centred arches. The last bay contains glazed doors (to the Cathedral shop) in a pointed opening with chevron mould on nook shafts.

The west passage, now the shop, has four bays of heavy quadripartite ribbed vault, in part to a Norman blind arcade, with a three-light opening at the west end.

The eastern slype, immediately adjoining the south transept, is of very early work, probably from the time of Wulfstan, though some detail appears earlier. It has two groined bays carried on blind arcading to monolithic half-columns on primitive-looking bases and capitals. A plain high pointed arch leads through to the exterior at the east end, and a lesser arch opens to a passage parallel with a side of the Chapter House.

The Chapter House

This is a circular building of approximately 18.3 metres (60 feet) diameter with a central column, but rebuilt externally to octagonal form. The exterior, mainly in pink sandstone, has four-light windows set deep in flush surrounds below small window slits. Bays are divided by square buttresses with stepped insets near the head, beneath a hollow-mould string to plain parapet and saddle-back coping. The north side is linked to the south transept by two-storey 14th-century buildings, with the treasury at upper level.

The entrance is centred on the middle bay of the east cloister walk. The 14th-century door is flanked by niches with tracery above. Inside, the central column, in limestone on a Purbeck base, carries ten ribs to the plastered groined vault over the main windows. Those abutting the transept are in blank tracery.

The lower half features early masonry in alternate green and brown bands, with a series of seven very shallow niches to each bay having interlaced round-arched heads beneath a continuous string course. The bays are divided by Norman pillars with cushion capitals supporting the later vaulting. Formerly a continuous bench ran all round, but this was cut away in 1641 to accommodate the shelves of the Cathedral Library.

The door bay has a pair of 19th-century doors in a moulded surround with a four-centred head. Slightly offset to its left are the remains of the round head to the original doorway, dating from before the remodelling of the cloister.

The Refectory and Undercroft

This runs the full length of the cloister south walk. On the south side it is completely exposed. The main hall has five large three-light Decorated windows to stopped drips, beneath a moulded string and plain parapet.

The lower area has, at the left-hand end, a doorway in a rich moulded pointed arch reached by six steps, then a series of flat Norman buttresses under a continuous offset sill band. At the far right is a fine Norman door in a recessed cloister through a barrel-vaulted passage with a low doorway on the left to arched heads above deep-set windows between buttresses, lighting the undercroft.

The ends have corner buttresses with two offsets. The east wall has a square window with curvilinear tracery set deep to a moulded surround with a four-centred head. An offset string with two flat buttresses corresponds with the undercroft level, and the west end has a flying buttress and a large 14th-century window. The low-pitched gables are simply coped with a crowning finial.

On the north side, rising above the cloister south walk, are four large 14th-century windows, a broad external stack between bays two and three and a smaller stack at bays four/five, with an octagonal corner turret.

The undercroft has been subdivided later and is partly inaccessible. It has a central row of bold Norman columns carrying crudely formed groined vaults in six bays.

The upper hall, the former refectory and now King's School College Hall, has a wooden vaulted ceiling to stone corbel capitals and windows in reveals with fluted nook-shafts. The walls to sill height have 19th-century wood panelling. At the west end is a complex 19th-century screen with gallery. The floor is parquet.

At the east end, built into the wall below a high window, is a fine early 13th-century carved Christ in Majesty, unfortunately much damaged by Reformation defacement. Also in the north wall, near the east end, the window rere-arch has some vaulting associated with a former reading desk.

Historical Context

There was a Benedictine house on the site in Saxon times, but an almost complete rebuilding took place under Wulfstan starting in 1084. 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 east cloister range, but projected westward from the centre of the west walk at the level of the cloister. Other elements were located under the dormitory, as the ground falls away rapidly here, and three further levels, including the necessarium, could be built below it. Only fragments of these works remain.