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Plotting the Past, Planning
the Future - The Life of a Plot
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After the Reformation, when the Dean and Chapter took over the running of the Cathedral from the Prior, many of the church properties came on to the market and were bought up by entrepreneurs. The corner cottage was bought outright by Christopher Dighton and became 'freehold'. In 1557 Dighton also took a lease of the rest of the site from the Dean and Chapter. A building clause, requiring him to develop the site, was attached to his lease and it seems likely that numbers 5 (now demolished) and 7, Copenhagen Street were constructed at that time. |
| The
buildings at 91-94 High Street as they may have appeared in the 15th century. |
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Christopher Dighton held a high position in Worcester. He was a member of the ruling body, the 'Twenty-Four', and an official of the Clothiers' Company, the most important of the trade companies. He was High Bailiff, the equivalent of Mayor, in 1575, the year Queen Elizabeth I visited Worcester and it was he who was responsible for the silver cup presented to the Queen, the 'fairest that mought be found in London'. Like his predecessors in the house Christopher Dighton kept a tavern; there are various references to 'drinking at Mr Dightons'. In 1584 he moved across the road to the Catherine Wheel, opposite the Guildhall and left the house to his son, another Christopher. The younger Christopher continued to keep the tavern and 'maulthowses', where the malt for the beer was made, are mentioned in his will. He was just as influential as his father and, in 1604, was member of Parliament for Worcester. 
The 17th-century; why 'The Earl's Post'?...After the death of
Christopher Dighton the younger in 1604, soon after his election to
Parliament, the property passed to his children, but they no longer
lived there. Instead, they let the premises and, sometime during the
first half of the seventeenth century, the property was re-modelled
as an inn and the freehold 'cottage' incorporated into the main building,
forming part of the hall or main room. The premises are described
in 1649 in a survey taken by Parliament. 'Which said messuage is
a common Inn called the Earles Post'. This is the first mention
of a name for the tavern or inn. The title may go back to the earliest
tavern on the site and refer to the 'bear with the ragged staff',
the badge of the Earl of Warwick, or it may have been intended as
a compliment to the Earl of Coventry, who was a good friend to Worcester
in the 17th century.
The survey goes on to describe the rooms. 'Part of a haule, a kitchin, 5 drinking rooms below stairs, a dining room, 3 chambers above staires, a garret and 3 chambers over the stable, and 2 large cellars, extending in length N and S and other necessary rooms, with stables for about 8 horses. Part of which house is affirmed by oath to be Freehold of Inheritance adjoining to the aforesaid premises, viz., part of the haule, a little room adjacent called the Earles post.' Outside, the inn advertised itself by a sign set on post, for which the landlord paid a rent to the city, but by the end of the century 'a colossial figure of a man, carved in wood' had been erected at the north-east corner of the building. In 1649 the inn appears to have occupied the whole building, but, soon after, the property was divided up into three separate houses and only the corner house was used as the inn. When, in the 1670s, Francis Richardson was landlord, the inn had a number of well furnished bedchambers. These were not numbered as in hotels to-day but each room had a name, the Nag's Head, the George, the Rose, the Maiden Head, the Dolphin, the King's Head and the Spread Eagle. Most of these rooms were heated and the inn is recorded as having 12 hearths. |
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