|
Britain - Photo and History Pages WALES, CENTRAL ENGLAND AND EAST ANGLIA Paradoxplace BRITISH ABBEYS AND CATHEDRALS
Worcester Cathedral Monastic foundation on the River Severn
|
|
 |
|
|
The cathedral from the south west. There has been a cathedral on this site in Worcester, on the River Severn opposite the county cricket ground, since that built by Bosel, who was consecrated as first bishop in 680. A slightly later bishop, Oswald (c925 - 992) built a second (abbey) church plus monastery alongside Bosel's cathedral. |
|
 |
|
|
Bishop Wulfstan (c1009 - 1095 (86)) was prior of the monastery before becoming Bishop of Worcester in 1062. An early campaigner against the Bristol based slave trade, he was one of the only English bishops to be allowed to retain his office after Archbishop Lanfranc (himself a Northern Italian) sorted the underperforming Anglo Saxons in the 1070s following the Norman conquest.
The crypt of the present cathedral is all that remains of Saint Wulfstan's new cathedral started in 1084. In the middle ages the tomb shrines of Saints Oswald and Wulfstan attracted many pilgrims to Worcester. They were destroyed by good old Henry VIII, but he avoided meting out the same treatment to the tomb shrine of his older brother Arthur, first husband of Catherine of Aragon, which was nearby (though he carted off the loot that was there of course).
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
The tomb and effigy of King John (1167-1199-1216 (49)), son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and brother of absentee French speaking King Richard I. John arm wrestled the powerful medieval Pope Innocent III and lost, then arm wrestled his barons and ended up being Magna Cartered. As a by-product of these sagas he also managed to financially ruin many Cistercian Abbeys.
|
Worcester was a strongly Royalist town, and to emphasize the point the Guildhall facade has sumptuous statues of Kings Charles I and II and Queen Ann, and this head of Oliver Cromwell with his ears nailed to the middle of the main door archway. |
|
|
|
 |
|
| The royal tomb can be seen to the east of the choir in front of the altar | |
 |
|
| Misericords dating from 1380 in the choir stalls - owls gazing in awe, and musical jousting | |
 |
|
 |
|
| A complicated acquatic medieval homily in a little bas-relief over the arcading in the south bay of the second transept | |
 |
|
|
The east side of the cloister with some pensioned off medieval cathedral bells on the right. These were decommissioned in the second half of the 1800s when, as part of the major Victorian restoration of the cathedral, a new set of 12 bells replaced the earlier set of 8. The replacement bells were recast in the 1920s to improve their sound quality, and Worcester now has one of the finest (and heaviest) ring of bells in the world. Certainly the sound heard by Mr P, when a visiting group of Kentish bellringers were given a four hour go on an October Sunday morning, was simply magnificent.
Also on the musical front, the composer Edward Elgar lived in Worcester, and the first performance of the Enigma Variations too place in the cathedral in 1899.
Other monastic buildings to survive include the undistinguished chapter house and a huge refectory on the conventional south side of the cloisters - out of bounds to tourists because it is now used as a hall for the Kings School Worcester. The dormitory was on the west side of the cloister, but nothing of this survives.
Link to Worcester Cathedral Web Site
|
 |
|
Links to other Paradoxplace pages
All original material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-07 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission
|
|
