Building record 10657 - Terrace along North Side Abbey Court (7 - 11 Abbey Court)

This monument refers to the extant terrace along the north side of Abbey Court (or Abbey Square), four listed buildings are included (DCH 6721, DCH6722, DCH6723, DCH6724). This development occurred during the early to mid-seventeenth to eighteenth century redevelopment of the former Great Court (CHER 10640/12). No. 11 Abbey Square was constructed c 1760, on the site of the former bakery and brewhouse of the abbey (CHER 10640/20). No. 9 was built at a similar time (c 1754 – 1760), also on a lease from the Dean and Chapter of Chester Cathedral (7), as was No. 7. Please see the individual listed building records for detailed structural information, and see CHER 10641/4 for how this terrace fits into the general history of Abbey Square.

<1> Bennett. J.H.E., 1948, The Old Bishop's Palace, Chester, Bennett J H E 1948 37/69-106 (Article in Journal). SCH5773.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ46NW34/1964 (Index). SCH2487.

<3> Harris, B.E., 1979, Bartholomew City Guides - Chester, /67 (Book). SCH394.

<4> Morris, Rupert H (Rev.), 1894, Chester in the Plantagenet & Tudor Reigns, /167 (Book). SCH946.

<5> Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Revised List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, City of Chester Intra Mural 1998/ 20 (Unpublished Report). SCH4570.

<6> Lewis C.P & Thacker A.T. (eds), 2005, Victoria County History - A History of the County of Chester: Volume Vii, The City of Chester - The City of Chester, Culture, Buildings, Institutions (Book). SCH6522.

<7> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 470012, 470013, 470014, 470015 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

<8> Mel Morris Conservation, 2012?, 10 and 11 Abbey Square, Chester: Historic Development & Phase Plans, R4349 (Client Report). SCH8757.

Report detailing the historic development, including phase plans, of Numbers 10 & 11 Abbey Square in advance of proposed redevelopment (see also sources 2 and 3), and produced considering map evidence, other documentary sources and also physical evidence.

One of the documents consulted includes a documentary history of the buildings written by Sister Kate, in 1975, one of the sisters of the Community of the Holy Name who were then incumbents of 'The Retreat House' (Numbers 10& 11 Abbey Street). This discusses the earlier history of the area/buildings, and also the twentieth century history, including alterations made to the buildings during this period.

The map evidence for the buildings dates back to the early seventeenth century, Abbey Square was the Great Court of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Werburgh and is illustrated on the Randall Holme's plan of the Abbey of 1626. The Court contained the domestic buildings of the Abbey and on the north side of the Great Court were located a row of buildings identified on the Holme's plan as the brewery and bakehouse. The dissolution of St. Werburgh's Abbey in 1541 and the conversion of the monastic church into the cathedral made little initial difference to the form of Abbey Court. According to Sister Kate, the members of the Chapter of Chester Cathedral for many centuries, were reluctant to live in the Precinct and most sub-let their houses. Also, according to Sister Kate and ecclesiastical documentary sources, the monastic bakehouse may have become a Prebendary's house from 1623. Based on this evidence, it seems that there was a house on the north side of Abbey Square from 1623, but its precise footprint and location is not known. According to Sister Kate, after 1694 the house in Abbey Court was divided into two separate dwellings.

In March 1754, the old brewery buildings on the North side of the Square were leased to Thomas Prescott, Rober Taylor, and his son, Mascie Taylor. The monastic buildings were pulled down and the new dwelling houses built in their place, the present No's 7, 8, 9 and 10 Abbey Square. Similarly, the lease of the pair of brick houses was given to Roger Barnston; in February 1755, the Dean and Chapter granted Barnston a new lease on the understanding that he would build 'one good handsome brick house on the premises… in the place and stead of the said two messuages…which are grown old and in Decay'. This Barnston did and the house that he built in Abbey Square (the current No. 11) was occupied after his death in 1782 by his widow and other family members until 1835. However, although Barnston undertook to demolish both of the earlier seventeenth century houses, he seems to have retained a small part of the rear house and incorporated it into the service wing of the new house. There is some physical evidence for the seventeenth century building in the rear service block of No.11, this includes a king post truss and a single moulded transverse beam. The truss is roughly equidistant from two internal masonry walls, suggesting that at least one bay of the seventeenth house survives.

In 1849 the Dean and Chapter acquired the lease on No.11 Abbey Square for the purpose of creating a Residence House for the canons; the name 'Canon's Residence' appears of the 1875 Town Plan of Chester. The most famous Canon to reside at the House was Charles Kingsley who was incumbent from 1869-1872. He is commemorated by a blue plaque on the front of the building. By 1919, the Canon's Residence was redundant and the building became the temporary home of Bishop Henry Luke Paget and, thereafter, by Dr Josep Bridge, the Cathedral organist, until 1925. The final chapter of the history for No.11 came in 1926 when it opened as a Retreat House.

The Retreat House had twenty beds for those visiting at times of ordination, for meetings and conferences within the Cathedral. Main alterations at this time was the provision of first floor bathrooms, the additions of partitions at first and second floor level, to create bedrooms., the removal of walls of the sitting room and a store room to create a large refectory and the conversion of the dining room into a chapel, with the adjoining pantry becoming the sacristy. In 1931, the ground floor of No.10 was leased and connected to No.11 to enlarge the Retreat, providing an extra sitting room, dining room, and a bed-sitting room and bathroom for Retreat Conductors.

During the Second World War the Retreat House was used to house evacuee children, then a guest house and student accommodation for students evacuated from a London C of E training college. Following the war, the buildings reverted to use as a Retreat House.