Summary

Church of St. Alban, Worcester.

Source: Historic England

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 19 May 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

This monument includes a parish church situated on the northern side of Fish Street in Worcester on the north eastern side of the River Severn. The monument survives as a rectangular building measuring up to 17m long and 10m wide that was constructed of coursed red and green sandstone during the 11th and 12th centuries, with 17th and 19th century brick and ashlar renovations. The church consists of a single cell nave and chancel with a north aisle. The entrance to the nave is situated on the south west and has a round headed arch supported by one order of slender columns and a stone hoodmould. To the east of the entrance are two round headed windows divided by a blocked narrow window. A roundel within a blocked rectangular opening is situated on the south east. The west end of the nave has two lancet windows with trefoil heads and a continuous hoodmould beneath a small rose window. The chancel has three stepped lancet windows beneath an oculus in the gable. During the 12th century a 3m wide aisle was constructed on the northern side of the nave that terminates approximately 3m from the eastern end of the chancel. The nave and the north aisle are separated by an arcade of round columns with four round headed double chamfered arches. The roof of the church is tiled with a coped gable ended double pitched roof over the nave and chancel and a single pitched roof over the northern aisle. At the apex of the western gable is a 17th century bellcote with two openings and stone coping.

The church was established by the 6th century and was a part of a Christian community at Worcester in 720.

The parish Church of St. Alban is listed at Grade II.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

A parish church is a building, usually of roughly rectangular outline and containing a range of furnishings and fittings appropriate to its use for Christian worship by a secular community, whose members gather in it on Sundays and on the occasion of religious festivals. Children are initiated into the Christian religion at the church's font and the dead are buried in its churchyard. Parish churches were designed for congregational worship and are generally divided into two main parts: the nave, which provides accommodation for the laity, and the chancel, which is the main domain of the priest and contains the principal altar. Either or both parts are sometimes provided with aisles, giving additional accommodation or spaces for additional altars. Most parish churches also possess towers, generally at the west end, but central towers at the crossing of nave and chancel are not uncommon and some churches have a free-standing or irregularly sited tower. Many parish churches also possess transepts at the crossing of chancel and nave, and south or north porches are also common. The main periods of parish church foundation were in the 10th to 11th and 19th centuries. Most medieval churches were rebuilt and modified on a number of occasions and hence the visible fabric of the church will be of several different dates, with in some cases little fabric of the first church being still easily visible. Parish churches are found throughout England. Their distribution reflects the density of population at the time they were founded. In regions of dispersed settlement parishes were often large and churches less numerous. The densest clusters of parish churches were found in thriving medieval towns. Parish churches have always been major features of the landscape and a major focus of life for their parishioners. They provide important insights into medieval and later population levels or economic cycles, religious activity, artistic endeavour and technical achievement. A significant number of surviving examples are identified to be nationally important.

Despite modern alterations, repairs and its conversion into a homeless centre, the Church of St. Alban survives comparatively well and forms an integral part of a nationally important abbey and medieval town. The church contains a number of architectural features of considerable interest and elements of earlier structures will remain concealed behind later stone and brickwork and will provide important information on its construction and use.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, Willis-Bund, J W (editors), The Victoria History of the County of Worcester: Volume IV, (1924)
Pevsner, N, Brooks, A, The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, (2007)
Other
Pastscape Monument No:- 116266

Source: Historic England