Worcester Cathedral

Worcester Cathedral

Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, England; situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. Its official name is The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

History

Altar of Worcester Cathedral

The Cathedral was founded in 680 with Bishop Bosel as its head. The first cathedral was built in this period but nothing now remains of it. The existing crypt of the cathedral dates from the 10th century and the time of St Oswald, bishop of Worcester. The current cathedral dates from the 12th and 13th centuries.

Monks and nuns had been present at the Cathedral since the 7th century (see Bede). The monastery became Benedictine in the second half of the 10th century (one author gives the time range 974-7, another considers 969 more likely). The Benedictine monks were driven out at 18 January 1540 and replaced by secular canons. There is an important connection to Fleury as Oswald, bishop of Worcester 961-92, being prior at the same time, was professed at Fleury and introduced the monastric rule of Fleury to Worcester.

The former monastic library of Worcester contained a considerable number of manuscripts which are, among other libraries, now scattered over Cambridge, London (British Library), Oxford Bodleian, and the Cathredral library at Worcester of today.

Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the building was re-established as a cathedral of secular clergy. The cathedral was subject to major restoration work by Sir George Gilbert Scott and A E Perkins in the 1860s. Both men are buried at the cathedral.

The Cathedral has the distinction of containing 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 Wulstan 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 was doubtless spared destruction by Henry VIII during the English Reformation because of his brother's Chantry in the cathedral.

Other famous burials include Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947), Bishop of Worcester John Gauden (1605-1662) and Richard Edes (d.1604), a Chaplain to Elizabeth I and James I.

Music

The Cathedral organ

Worcester Cathedral has three choirs: they are the Worcester Cathedral Choir (the main choir which has both a boys' and a girls' treble line which normally work independantly), Worcester Cathedral Chamber Choir, and the Worcester Cathedral Voluntary Choir.

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 4 manual organ with 61 speaking stops. It has a large gothic case with heavily decorated front pipes as well as two smaller cases either side of the quire.

This organ was removed in 2006 in order to make way for a new instrument by Kenneth Tickell which is currently being built and will be completed in the Summer of 2008. The specification and drawings can be found on Kenneth Tickell's website. In the meanwhile, the organ is being served by two electronic instruments by Rodgers. The Quire has a three manual totally electronic instrument while in the Nave there is, on loan, a hybrid instrument of both pipes and electronics.

Notable organists include Thomas Tomkins (from 1596), Hugh Blair (from 1895), Ivor Atkins (from 1897) and David Willcocks (from 1950).

An image of the cathedral's west face was featured on the reverse of the Bank of England £20 note Series E, issued between 1999 and 2007. It accompanied a portrait of the composer Edward Elgar who spent the majority of his life in Worcestershire. The first performance of his Enigma Variations took place at the cathedral during the 1899 Three Choirs Festival.

Gallery

• 
  The West Window
• 
  The East End
• 
  The East Window
• 
  A Turret of the Tower
• 
  The Tower
• 
  College Green
• Worcester and River Severn
  Worcester and River Severn
• 
  1836 Cathedral plan

See also

• Aldred
• Bishop of Worcester
• Worcester voluntary choir
• Architecture of the medieval cathedrals of England
• English Gothic architecture
• Romanesque architecture
• Church of England

External links

• Worcester Cathedral
• Worcester Cathedral at Skyscrapernews.com
• A history of the choristers of Worcester Cathedral
• Adrian Fletcher’s Paradoxplace – Worcester Cathedral Pages – Photos
• Flickr images tagged Worcester Cathedral
• The Worcester Cathedral Voluntary Choir
• The Worcester Cathedral Chamber Choir

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