Building record 10640/5 - Abbey of St Werburgh - Cloisters

The cloisters of the former Abbey of St Werburgh, now the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary (CHER 10641) must have been built by the twelfth century, as under Earl Hugh I (d 1101), the abbey acquired buildings ‘fit for the habitation of monks’, but only the wall on the north side of the nave (of the church building, CHER 10640/1) remains of this early date (5). They were situated north of the church, probably because space to the south was circumscribed to the south by the town and the cemetery. This wall has two sets of three blank arches with patterned shafts. To the east of them is the major doorway from the church into the cloister and this is the only example of latest Norman work in the cathedral (1).The cloisters were rebuilt in the thirteenth century in early English style, but unfortunately nothing remains of this phase (2). Parts of the monastic ranges to the east, north and west were also being rebuilt, and access points were added to the cloister walks (5). They were rebuilt again between 1525 - 1530 by Abbot Birkenshaw, and these new cloisters were of an irregular shape. The south walk and the southern half of the west walk were enlarged by a row of nine columns framing glazed bays or recesses, which have been interpreted as carrels for monastic study. The work thus initiated was probably still continuing at the time of the Dissolution (5). No further work was undertaken for some time. Maintenance during the seventeenth and eighteenth century was sporadic. The cloisters, for example, were clearly in decay in the 1680s and 1690s, though work was done in 1712, no major work was undertaken in the eighteenth century, and by the 1770s only three of the four walks remained (5). A major restoration occurred shortly before the First World War by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. In the 1920s the windows were supplied with stained glass (3). The vaults have diagonal and ridge-ribs, all hollow-chamfered and bosses. The north cloister contains a stone shelf in its north wall, which was the lavatorium or wash place for the abbey and probably had a stone or lead water trough (3). The south and west cloisters are wider than the others, with detached piers forming carrels or reading spaces, overlooking the cloister garth. There are only four in the west walk and those in the south walk were designed by Scott (1, 3). --In 1871/72 Scott reconstructed the south walk of the cloisters to match the surviving work elsewhere. Between 1911 – 1913 the late medieval vaulting, by then in a dangerous condition, was restored by Giles Scott. Finally, the cloister gardens, laid out under Dean Bennett in the 1920s, received a sculpture by Stephen Broadbent in 1994.

<1> Pevsner N & Hubbard E, 1971, The Buildings of England: Cheshire, /147 (Book). SCH3078.

<2> Burne, R. V. H., 1962, The Monks of Chester. The History of St Werburgh's Abbey (Book). SCH3213.

<3> Harris, B.E., 1979, Bartholomew City Guides - Chester, /74-75 (Book). SCH394.

<4> Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Revised List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, City of Chester Intra Mural 1998/ 382 (Unpublished Report). SCH4570.

<5> 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.