Worcester Cathedral

The nave

Worcester Cathedral embodies many features that are highly typical of an English medieval cathedral. Like the cathedrals of Salisbury and Lincoln, it has two transepts crossing the nave, rather than the single transept usual on the Continent. This feature of English cathedrals was to facilitate the private saying of the Holy Office by many clergy or monks. Worcester is also typical of English cathedrals in having a chapter house and cloister. To the north side of the cathedral is an entrance porch, a feature designed to eliminate the draught which, prior to the installation of modern swing doors, would blow through cathedrals whenever the western doors were open.

There are important parts of the building dating from every century from the 11th to the 16th. Its tower in the perpendicular style is described by Alec Clifton-Taylor as "exquisite"[1] and is seen best across the River Severn.[2]

The earliest part of the building at Worcester is the multi-columned crypt in Norman style with cushion capitals remaining from the original monastic church begun by bishop Saint Wulfstan of Worcester in 1084. Also from the Norman period is the circular chapter house of 1120, made octagonal on the outside when the walls were reinforced in the 14th century. The nave was built and rebuilt piecemeal and in different styles by several different architects over a period of 200 years, from 1170 to 1374, some bays being a unique and decorative transition between Norman and Gothic.[1][22] The oldest parts show alternate layers of green sandstone from Highley in Shropshire and yellow Cotswold limestone.[23]

The lady chapel and east window

The Norman crypt

The east end was rebuilt over the Norman crypt by Alexander Mason between 1224 and 1269, coinciding with, and in a very similar Early English style to, Salisbury Cathedral. From 1360, John Clyve finished off the nave, built its vault, the west front, the north porch and the eastern range of the cloister. He also strengthened the Norman chapter house, added buttresses and changed its vault. His masterpiece is the central tower of 1374, originally supporting a timber, lead-covered spire, now gone. Between 1404 and 1432, an unknown architect added the north and south ranges to the cloister, which was eventually closed by the western range by John Chapman, 1435–1438. The last important addition is Prince Arthur’s Chantry Chapel to the right of the south choir aisle, 1502–1504.[1][22]

Worcester Cathedral was extensively restored from 1857 to 1874 by W. A. Perkins and Sir George Gilbert Scott. Most of the fittings and the stained glass date from this time. Some early 17th century screens and panelling, removed from the choir and organ casing in 1864, are now at Holy Trinity Church, Sutton Coldfield.[24]

As of January 2023:[25]

• Interim Dean – Dr Stephen Edwards (installed 2019, Vice-Dean from 2021, Interim Dean from 26/8/23)
• Canon Precentor – John Paul Hoskins (installed January 2022)
• Canon Librarian – Kimberly Bohan (installed January 2023)
• Lay Canon – Dr David Bryer
• Lay Canon – Anne Penn
• Lay Canon – Henry Briggs
• Lay Canon – Staffan Engström

The interior, looking east.

Tomb chest in the nave.

The Cloister gardens.

Grave of Stanley Baldwin and his wife Lucy

The Cathedral contains the tomb of King John in its chancel. Before his death in Newark in 1216, John had requested to be buried at Worcester. He is buried between the shrines of St Wulfstan and St Oswald (now destroyed).

The cathedral has a memorial, Prince Arthur's Chantry, to the young prince Arthur Tudor, who is buried here. Arthur's younger brother and next in line for the throne was Henry VIII. Worcester Cathedral suffered badly from iconoclasm but was spared total destruction by Henry VIII during the English Reformation because of his brother's chantry in the cathedral.

An epitaph in Latin to Henry Bright, headmaster of the King's School, Worcester, can be found near the north porch.[26] Other notable burials include:

• Godfrey Giffard (c. 1235 – 1302), Chancellor of the Exchequer of England, Lord Chancellor of England, and Bishop of Worcester
• Maud (de Giffard) Devereux (on 3 September 1297), William Devereux’s widow, in a place near the burial site of her brother, Bishop Godfrey de Giffard
• Ivor Atkins (1869–1953), choirmaster and organist at Worcester Cathedral from 1897 to 1950
• Alfred Barry (1826–1910), one time Bishop of Sydney and Primate of Australia
• Ernest Bird (1877–1945), scholar of King's School, Worcester
• Arthur W. Davies (1878–1966), one time Principal of St. John's College, Agra
• Richard Edes (d. 1604), a chaplain to Elizabeth I and James I
• John Gauden (1605–1662), Bishop of Worcester, possible author of the Eikon Basilike[27]
• Philip Goodrich (1929–2001), Bishop of Worcester from 1982 to 1996
• William Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Hamilton (1616–1651), Scottish Royalist commander
• Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 1st Baronet (1593–1650)
• William Henry Reed (1876–1942), violinist, friend and biographer of Edward Elgar
• Robin Woods (1914–1997), Dean of Windsor, Bishop of Worcester from 1971 to 1982
• Francis Brett Young (1884–1954), Worcestershire author

The Cathedral Library at Worcester, located since the 19th century in the loft above the South Nave, contains 289 medieval manuscripts, 55 incunabula, and 6600 post-medieval printed books. The library and archive of Worcester Cathedral also has a total of 19000 archived documents, along with a music collection containing works from famous composers such as Edward Elgar and Thomas Tomkins. Of particular note are the Worcester Antiphoner (the only book of its kind to survive the Reformation), the will of King John, and a 1225 copy of Magna Carta.[28] The large scriptorium at Worcester produced many manuscripts and was a place of work for many famous scribes, such as the chronicler John of Worcester and the unnamed monk identified by his distinctive handwriting as The Tremulous Hand of Worcester.[29]

Thirty-nine of the misericords date from 1379 and include a complete set of the Labours of the Months. The subject matter includes biblical stories, mythology and folklore including N-07, The Clever Daughter, which shows a naked woman draped in a net, riding a goat and carrying a rabbit under her arm. Three of the misericords are Victorian replacements such as N-02, Judas in the jaws of Satan.

The tower has a ring of twelve bells plus four semitone bells and a 4.1 tonne non-swinging bourdon.[30] The current peal of 15 ringing bells were cast in 1928 by John Taylor & Co., of Loughborough, from the metal of the original ring cast in 1869. The bourdon bell was cast in 1869 and retuned in 1928. It is only used by the clock to strike the hours and sometimes tolls for special events. The ring is the sixth heaviest ring of twelve in the world; only the bells in the cathedrals of Liverpool, Exeter, York, and St Paul's in London, and of St Mary Redcliffe church in Bristol are heavier. The bells are also considered to be one of the finest toned rings ever cast, a close contender to York Minster. The bells hang in a wooden frame that was constructed in 1869 for the previous ring. Worcester Cathedral is unique in having a purpose-built teaching centre equipped with eight special training bells, linked to computers.[30]

The transept organ-case

The choir

Worcester Cathedral has three choirs: Worcester Cathedral Choir (the principal choir which has both boys' and girls' sections, normally working independently), Worcester Cathedral Voluntary Choir, and Worcester Cathedral Chamber Choir. All three were involved in the BBC broadcast of the midnight and Christmas morning services in 2007, with the boys and the girls of the Cathedral Choir, respectively, taking the lead in the two services.[31] Since the 18th century, Worcester Cathedral Choir has taken part in the Three Choirs Festival, the oldest music festival in the world.

The composer Edward Elgar spent most of his life in Worcestershire. The first performance of the revised version of his Enigma Variations – the version usually performed – took place at the cathedral during the 1899 Three Choirs Festival. He is commemorated in a stained glass window which contains his portrait.

Worcester Cathedral has a long history of organs dating back to at least 1417. There have been many re-builds and new organs in the intervening period, including work by Thomas Dallam, William Hill and most famously Robert Hope-Jones in 1896. The Hope-Jones organ was heavily re-built in 1925 by Harrison & Harrison, and then regular minor works kept it in working order until Wood Wordsworth and Co. were called in 1978. It was a large four-manual organ with 61 speaking stops. It had a large Gothic Revival case with heavily decorated front pipes as well as two smaller cases either side of the quire.[32]

This organ (apart from the large transept case and pedal pipes) was removed in 2006 in order to make way for a new instrument by Kenneth Tickell, which was completed in the summer of 2008.[33] The nave has a separate three-manual Rodgers organ.[34]

Notable organists at Worcester have included Thomas Tomkins (from 1596), Hugh Blair (from 1895), Ivor Atkins (from 1897) and David Willcocks (from 1950). From 2012 to 2018 the Director of Music and Organist was Peter Nardone.

Worcester Cathedral hosts the annual graduation ceremonies for the University of Worcester. These ceremonies are presided over by the vice-chancellor of the university, and take place over four days in November.[35]

Since 2018 Worcester Cathedral became the host to the annual honours celebration of the Royal Life Saving Society UK, celebrating the long service and meritorious achievements of their lifesaving members.

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  College Green
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  View of the cathedral from College Green
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  Worcester and the River Severn
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  Quire organ cases and decorative ceiling
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  The rood screen, nave and west window
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  The altar area
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  The high altar
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  Painted ceiling
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  Statues above the portal
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  1836 Cathedral floorplan
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  Taken from the choir

• Ealdred (archbishop of York)
• Bishop of Worcester
• Worcester Cathedral Voluntary Choir
• Architecture of the medieval cathedrals of England
• List of Gothic Cathedrals in Europe
• English Gothic architecture
• Romanesque architecture
• Church of England

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Worcester Cathedral.

• Worcester Cathedral official web site. Retrieved 3 June 2009
• Worcester Cathedral at Skyscrapernews.com Archived 26 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine
• A history of the choristers of Worcester Cathedral
• Adrian Fletcher’s Paradoxplace – Worcester Cathedral Pages – Photos Archived 22 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine
• Flickr images tagged Worcester Cathedral
• The Worcester Cathedral Chamber Choir