Visit to Worcester Cathedral

By the year 1000 CE, Worcester was blessed with not one, but two cathedral churches—the older church of St Peter (which was standing by 692) and the more recent church of St Mary (completed by 983). There are few traces of either church. In 1084 the remarkable Bishop Wulfstan undertook a major rebuilding of the church of St Mary. Only the crypt of this church now survives, but it gives a compelling glimpse of the design and decoration of Wulfstan’s great edifice. A second major campaign of rebuilding also resulted in the construction of a new chapter house, decorated with remarkable vault paintings. The present chapter house dates, however, from c. 1120, so these vault paintings must be reconstructed from notes made to a cathedral priory manuscript in c. 1200. Although different bays of the nave were rebuilt over the course of the twelfth century, it was not until the 1220s that the first efforts were made to replace the old (Romanesque) east end with a new (Gothic) one. The completed structure served as a dramatic stage for the veneration of Bishop Wulfstan, now St Wulfstan, and for the commemoration of King John. In the 1360s, the master-builder John Clyve completed the nave, the west front, and the tower. The cloister was finally completed in the 1430s. On the eve of the Reformation, a new chantry chapel was inserted in the south choir aisle. Appropriately enough, this was the chantry chapel constructed for the tomb of Arthur, eldest brother of Henry VIII and the original betrothed of Katherine of Aragon. Worcester Cathedral remains a richly rewarding edifice.