The misericords and history of Chester Cathedral

medieval misericords misericord misericorde misericordes Miserere Misereres choir stalls

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The Misericords and history of Chester Cathedral,

Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Chester Cathedral has 43, misericords dating from 1390 and five modern misericords.

Please launch the complete misericord description page here

Please click on the thumbnail misericords for larger images.

Nick Jones has kindly let me have a design based on some of the misericords at Chester Cathedral

History of Chester Cathedral, Cheshire.

There was probably a Christian basilica from the late Roman era, and this was probably (I know, a lot of probably’s) dedicated to SS Peter and Paul. This basilica was replaced - possibly several times during the Saxon period, and at some point the, then, current chapel was rededicated to St Werburgh. In the early 10th century St Werburgh’s remains were re-interred at the chapel and in 907 a shrine was built to her. During the third quarter of the 10th century a college of secular canons was created, and in 968 King Edgar granted the church its charter.
The abbey, as it was by then, was restored in 1057 by Leofric, Earl of Mercia and Lady Godiva (beloved by Coventry and the FKK). This abbey was razed to the ground around 1090, with the secular canons evicted, no known trace of it remains.
Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester established a Benedictine monastery on the site in 1093, which was built in the Norman style; the north west tower and the north transept date from this building phase. Most of the rest of the abbey church date from the 13th and 14th centuries., and are built in the gothic style. It was during one of the later 14th century upgrades that the misericords were installed. The misericords, whilst finely carved, are fairly typical of their era, flat topped with large, branched, supporters. It also begs the question, “what were the monks using previous to the misericords’ installation?” The the central tower, south transept, large west window and south porch are all early 16th century and are built in the perpendicular style. Peculiarly, the South transept, which is unusually large acquired a separate function as an independent ecclesiastical entity, the parish church of St Oswald, it remained thus until 1881.
In 1541, after a mere 4½ centuries the diocese of Chester was reformed (however, the cathedral had previously been at St John the Baptist) and St Werburgh was elevated to cathedral status, at about this time the shrine was desecrated and the cathedral was re-dedicated to Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The last abbot, Thomas Clarke, became the first CofE bishop of Chester, and head of a college of secular canons.
In 1636 the space beneath the south west tower became a bishop's consistory court. It was furnished as such at that time, and is now a unique survival in England.
During the 19th century, the cathedral was given a much needed renovation by Sir George Gilbert Scott, and work has continued thought the 20th century, most notably by the addition of a free standing bell tower, designed by George Pace.