Resources - Plotting the Past, Planning the Future - Making the Model

Plotting the Past, Planning the Future - Making the Model

Research - The period setting for the model - 1250 A.D., the middle of the 13th century - was chosen for a number of reasons. Any reconstruction of the city in more remote periods (like that of the Saxon burh or borough, c.900 A.D.) would have to be largely speculative. For more recent periods the amount of detailed information becomes so large that a major research project would be needed to assemble it. But in 1250 the city wall had not long been built, and all the city streets known in later centuries were established: the familiar geography of the modern city centre was just emerging.

Plan of Worcester 1250 model

Researching the model was a major challenge. No houses of the period survive in Worcester and few public buildings have remained unaltered - most are long demolished. For the houses, some information was available from archaeological excavations in the city, particularly the Deansway excavations of the 1980s, but most information had to come from elsewhere - from buildings of the period actually surviving or excavated in comparable locations in other towns. So to reconstruct the forms of houses and shops that would be found on Worcester High Street c.1250, surviving and excavated buildings from main-street locations in towns like Chester, Shrewsbury, Southampton and Coventry were used. For the form of cottages in the poorer suburbs, excavated buildings from Norwich and Gloucester, and documentary evidence from Winchester was used to design the models. The distribution of the various types around the model to reflect wealthy areas and poor areas was based on contemporary taxation records from Worcester.

Our knowledge of the public and ecclesiastical buildings of 13th-century Worcester varies greatly, mainly depending on whether anything of it survives - or was drawn before demolition. So the state of development of the cathedral church is known in some detail, including the fact that its exterior was whitewashed. In contrast, the Greyfriars' church and precinct were entirely demolished in the 16th century.

The Greyfriars design drawings

Worcester 1250 model - Greyfriars design drawings (19k)

The medieval city wall is one of the most impressive survivals of the period. But all the gates had been demolished by the end of the 18th century and have been reconstructed from early illustrations and archaeological evidence. The city ditch outside - filled in long ago - has been found by archaeological excavations on various sites, and its profile can be accurately reproduced from their data.
	The Foregate entrance through the City Walls

The city churches (there were ten parish churches) were mostly rebuilt in the 18th century, and their form in c.1250 has had to be reconstructed from details shown in earlier 18th-century drawings, and from a general knowledge of the way urban churches were developing at the time of the model. In 1250 few would have had towers, and many would have been in the process of adding aisles to one or both sides of their naves.

St Peter the Great's by H.H. Lines (28k)

Finally, the process of trying to reconstruct in three dimensions sites and buildings that are almost completely unknown to archaeologists and historians, has raised a host of new questions, and begun to come up with some new insights into the 13th-century city and its major monuments. Research continues - through the routine work of archaeologists within the planning process, and through historical research by individual investigators. The Past is changing all the time, and it is hoped to be able to up-date the model as new data becomes available.

St Peter the Great's
by H. H. Lines, 1855

Panel 1 - Panel 2

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© Worcester City Museums 2001

Introduction

Aerial Views of Worcester

The Worcester 1250 Model

Making the Model

Life in 13th Century Worcester

The Life of a Plot

Inheriting the Landscape

Related Topics

Potted Histories - Medieval Worcester

Worcester Maps & Plans

Things To Do

Worcester City History Awards for Schools