Monument record 11033/6 - Collegiate Church of St John the Baptist - Precinct (Including Wall)

At the time of the Dissolution, the church stood in a sizable precinct which included, to the east, the irregular and perhaps courtyard building of the St Anne’s fraternity, and to the south the large chapel of St James, and a small anchorite cell. A further chapel, the Calvercroft chapel, was probably a separate structure. All around were the clergy houses, including those of the bishop (CHER 11033/11/1), dean (CHER 11033/11/2), cannons, vicars and cantarists (CHER 11033/11/3, CHER 11033/11/4). At the north-west angle was the gatehouse. Gates are also shown in the north-east angle, in a plan of 1589 (Harl Mss 2073), and the boundary on the southern side was formed by cliffs (1).

Most of these buildings survived after the Dissolution. The chapels of the anchorite, Calvercroft, and St James, the last put to use as a store, were held by the first parochial vicar; the fraternity house passed to Sit Hugh Choldmondeley, one of the royal commissioners, the Dean’s House was taken by Hugh Glazier, and another clergy house was occupied by Alexander Coptes, an early lay rector. All later disappeared, probably destroyed in the Civil War siege of Chester. St John’s itself survived as a parish church after the Dissolution.

<1> Morris, Rupert H (Rev.), 1894, Chester in the Plantagenet & Tudor Reigns, /166 (Book). SCH946.

<2> 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.