Historic Churches 2022

BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON HISTORIC CHURCHES 29TH ANNUAL EDITION 11 WORCESTER CATHEDRAL UNDERCROFT Judith Leigh T HE CRYPT of Worcester Cathedral is a numinous sacred space, with clusters of creamy stone piers, round arches and white limewashed vaults, little natural light. Under the choir and entered from the south choir aisle, it is the main survivor of the Cathedral – the third on the site – begun by Wulfstan, bishop and later saint, in 1084. It was a monastic settlement, following the Rule of St Benedict, which had been established here by Bishop Oswald, the builder of the second Cathedral in the tenth century, and the successor to a Foundation of 680. A place of worship, learning, hospitality and communal living. On the south side of the cloister is a more workaday version of the crypt. This is the Undercroft to the former monastic refectory, the monks’ dining hall, also part of Wulfstan’s Norman building of 1084. Reached by the south walk of the cloister on the south side of the Cathedral, this too is a below-ground space, but with just three surviving sturdy squat round piers, a low white-rendered groined vault and slanting southerly light from the high- up windows at exterior ground level. For years the space had been used for random storage. Divided up from time to time to serve passing needs, extensively modified over the years – a survey of the surviving fabric suggests a very chequered history – it had certainly lost its role as a significant contributor to the daily life of the Cathedral. Originally one of its main functions would have been to store provisions for the refectory, the monks’ dining hall above, and the kitchen, a separate building to the west, which no longer survives. Over recent years it had become a blank space in the cloister range and also largely separated from the refectory, now called College Hall and used as a school hall by the King’s School on the other side of College Green. The aim of rescuing this historic space and returning it to a use fitting the role of the Cathedral in the 21st century and, importantly, in tune with its Benedictine parentage, has developed over a number of years, initiated by the then new dean Peter Atkinson. Initial plans drawn up by the previous architect, Chris Romain, were extensively developed, modified and carried out by his successor Camilla Finlay of Acanthus Clews, surveyor to the fabric of the Cathedral. The project was supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Friends of the Cathedral and private donors. Work powered on in spite of Covid vicissitudes and the building was finally officially opened, necessarily at low key, as The Undercroft Learning Centre in 2020. Squat stone piers in the undercroft (Photo: Andy Marshall) The crypt of Worcester Cathedral, constructed around the same time as the undercroft (Photo: Chris Guy)