Monument record 10641/4 - Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary - Abbey Courtyard / Green

Several significant developments occurred in the Abbey Courtyard (also near Abbey Green) after the Dissolution, as the former monastic buildings surrounding the Great Court (CHER 10640/12) were no longer required for their original purposes after this event. Note that this record largely summarises these developments, as the land and buildings involved had originally been part of the cathedral precinct. Additional detail can be found in the individual (linked) monument records, and most of these buildings were lost by the cathedral at some point in their history.

In the early seventeenth century the outer court included the Bishop’s Palace (CHER 10641/2) in the former Abbot’s Lodgings (CHER 10640/6), the Deanery (CHER 10641/3) in the former Chapel of St Thomas (CHER 10640/10), and at least one prebendal house, perhaps on the site of the former bakehouse (CHER 10640/20) (7). The condition of the court was a cause of dispute, largely because of the noise, filth and smoke engendered by the brewhouse and bakehouse on northern range and by rowdiness associated with an alehouse in the abbey gate (CHER 10655). Bishop Bridgeman, who in 1623 condemned the prebendaries houses as ‘base, little, noisome and unfit for habitation’, initiated improvements. In 1626 on the site of the monastic kitchen he built four houses (CHER 10656), reserved for the cathedral conducts, they were to be maintained by the dean and the chapter. The bishop also tried to ensure that the buildings on the north side of Abbey Court were reserved for the dean and the chapter and other members of the church. His injunction was ignored, and in 1634 the chapter renewed the brewhouse lease. In 1638, after the death of the tenant, Bridgeman sought help from the archbishop, and they succeeded in having any brewer or maltster banned from Abbey Court.

An amount of new building occurred within the former abbey precinct during the 1660s, in the former Great Court, and in the area that would develop into Abbey Green and the lane later known as Abbey Street. At the eastern end of the lane that would become Abbey St., Bishop Green erected four houses for the petty cannons. Building continued sporadically until the mid-eighteenth century, especially in the Abbey Court, which was known as ‘the prebendaries quadrangle’ and formed the main residential area of the precinct. The former prebendal house at the north-east corner was reconstructed in 1675 and 1695, and another next to Abbey Gate was rebuilt c 1696. In the 1720s the court was planted with lime walks. Work also progressed on the Bishop’s Palace (CHER 10641/2) at the south side of the court at this time. In 1753 Charles Boswell, a brewer, took lease of the northern half of the western side of the court, where in 1760 he had built three houses (CHER 10675). In 1755 he acquired a further lease at the south end of the precinct immediately west of St Nicholas ‘s Chapel, by then a wool hall, on which he built a linen hall (CHER 10659). On the north side of Abbey Court, in 1754, the chapter leased to the chapter clerk and others ‘certain old buildings’ (presumably the former brewhouse and bakehouse, CHER 10640/20), and adjoining land, sufficient for a terrace of four houses. Completed in 1761 (CHER 10657), and of brick with stone dressings, the development was the grandest in the precinct. At the north-east corner of the court there was another house of the same date built by a different architect, possibly Robert Taylor, built by one of the prebendaries on the site divided in 1754. In the court itself the lime walks were superseded by an oval of grass, in the centre of which was placed in 1761 a column removed from the Exchange in 1756 when the open ground floor was enclosed (CHER 10687).

The next area to be developed was the lane running from Abbey Court eastwards to the Kaleyards Gate, formerly known as Little Abbey Court and renamed Abbey Street in 1764. The lessees there included three of the prebendaries and Charles Boswell. The new scheme involved the demolition of the two easternmost minor cannons houses, by then long let to tenants and in a ruinous condition, and the construction of three new houses. Shortly afterwards there was development on a site leased to Alderman Thomas Boswell in 1768 thereafter known as Abbey Green; a terrace of six houses was completed probably by c 1775 and certainly before 1782 (CHER 10672). In the late 1780s the medieval chapel of St Thomas in the north-east corner of Abbey Square, which had long served as a Deanery (CHER 10641/3), was taken down and replaced with a ‘spacious mansion’ by Dean Cotton (CHER 10658). The prebendal house by Abbey gate was rebuilt in the early 1820s by the residing prebendary (CHER 10676), who shortly afterwards erected four more houses on a site on the north side of Abbey Street which had hitherto contained his coach house and stables (7).

<1> Burne, R. V. H., 1958, Chester Cathedral: from its founding by Henry VIII to the accession of Queen Victoria (Book). SCH4878.

<2> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 470389 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

<3> Hicklin, John, 1850, Christian Monuments (Article in Journal). SCH5497.

<4> Rickman, Thomas, 1864, On the Architectural History of Chester Cathedral (Article in Journal). SCH5516.

<5> R.C.H., 1868, Notes on recent discoveries in Chester Cathedral (Article in Journal). SCH6529.

<6> Scott G.G, 1885, Architectural History of Chester Cathedral (Article in Journal). SCH6419.

<7> 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.

<8> Chester Archaeology, 1998, The Bishop's House, 1 Abbey Street, Chester: Archaeological Watching Brief, R2694 (Client Report). SCH4802.