In c. A.D. 628, in a move to create a buffer zone between Mercia and Wessex, King Penda of Mercia amalgamated several small Anglian and Saxon kingdoms in the lower Severn Valley into a single political unit under the control of the Hwicce, whose territory centred on Winchcombe in Gloucestershire. Worcester fell within this territory and in A.D. 680, as part of a general reorganisation of the English church - which later became the model for the secular state - Archbishop Theodore created the See of Worcester.

The fact that Worcester was chosen as the See for the new Diocese (covering land in modern Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire) is extremely significant since both Gloucester (for its size) and Winchcombe (as the Hwiccian royal family seat) might have made more suitable candidates, and this supports the contention that there was a well established, and powerful, British Christian community living on the site when the area fell under Hwiccian control.

Bosel, the first Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Worcester, established his minster church of St Peter (possibly a stone building) somewhere on or near the site of the present Cathedral, within the defended earthworks which had enclosed the late Roman and post-Roman settlement - an area of c. 8 hectares (20 acres). While there is no archaeological evidence for structures outside the earthwork defences until the later part of the ninth century A.D., it is clear that the old Roman roads and streets, and probably the bridge, were still in use during this period. The silting up of the Diglis basin, which began in late Roman times, would have rendered this area unusable as a major harbour, and it is probably from this period that the foreshore on the east bank becomes commercially valuable for mooring and storage purposes.

A clear indication of the settlement’s religious importance at this time, and the size of the rural parish its clerics served, is the appearance by c. A.D. 721 of two further churches nestling within the northern bound of the defended area - St Alban’s, certainly, on Little Fish Street, and St Margaret’s, maybe, whose existence somewhere in the area of Warmstry Slip has only recently been identified. This large ecclesiastical community would have provided the focus around which the settlement developed in the eighth and ninth century, with the lay population primarily engaged with activities serving the church. As the church and its increasingly extensive rural estates prospered, so the lay community would have benefited, and the role of the church in stimulating and supporting commercial activity at this time cannot be overstated.

An example of the bishops’ economic wealth is shown by a charter of c. A.D. 840 which documents the sale of rights over five places in the west midlands to Bishop Heaberht by King Berhtwulf of Mercia for six horses, a gold ring, a dish, two drinking horns and three drinking vessels - the dish alone, probably silver, weighing eleven pounds. This wealth would have been underpinned by the agricultural produce and raw materials generated by their estates - for example a charter of c. A.D. 716 records the church of Worcester holding property in Droitwich which included six salt furnaces - with an additional and considerable income from trade and commerce. Various eighth and ninth century charters record the bishops’ extensive dealings in London, including one c. A.D. 743 which freed Bishop Mildred from paying tolls to King Aethelbald of Mercia on two ships.


Dating between A.D. 884 - 901, Worcester’s most famous Saxon charter records:

‘At the request of Bishop Waerfirth, their friend, Ealdorman Ethelred and Aethelflaed ordered the borough of Worcester to be built for the protection of all the people...and they now make it known, with the witness of God, in this Charter, that they will grant to god and St. Peter, and to the Lord of that Church, half of all the rights which belong to their lordship whether in the market or the street, both within the fortifications and outside...except that the wagon-shilling and load-penny at Droitwich go to the King as they have always done. Otherwise, land-rent, the fine for fighting, or theft, or dishonest trading, and the contribution to the borough wall and all the (fines for) offences which admit compensation, are to belong half to the Lord of the Church’.

Establishing Worcester as a fortified burh (a borough in the post-conquest period), this charter marks a significant turning point in the history and urban form of the settlement, establishing the structure around which the later medieval town developed and prospered - a structure which is still visible in today’s street plan. While the references to a market, trade and an urban population demonstrate that by this time the essentially religious settlement of the seventh and eighth centuries had developed many of the characteristics and problems of an urban centre (note the reference to fighting), the construction of the burh would have provided the opportunity for the Bishop of Worcester to regularise his powers over the lay population, and his holdings within the settlement - while of course conforming to King Alfred’s policy of fortification against the Danes (the border with Danish held territory, the Danelaw established in A.D. 886, running along Watling Street between Chester and London).

The defences constructed by Bishop Waerfirth extended between the south side of Broad Street, in the north, and the southern end of the river terrace, and probably incorporated the southern flank of the settlement’s existing earthwork defences in this area. While the line of the defences on the eastern flank of the town is uncertain, they probably ran east along St Swithin’s Street before turning south between the present New Street/Friar Street alignment and the line of the later medieval city wall. The defences enclosed an area of c.16 hectares (40 acres) and would have comprised a timber and stone reveted earth bank with a steep sided ditch outside. The bridge, between Newport Street and Tybridge Street, lay outside the burh, although there may have been another (now lost), or at least a ford, within it. While the old Roman roads to Droitwich (through Lowesmoor) and Gloucester/London (through Sidbury) were still in use at this time, with the Sidbury road at least having an entrance into the south- eastern flank of the burh, the main axial road along which the Roman town had developed was abandoned in favour of the present High Street/ Foregate Street/ Tything alignment (which may itself have been a surviving part of the Roman settlement’s street system), indicating both the scale of the works and their significance in influencing the layout of the later medieval town.

Analysis of Worcester’s reconstructed late medieval plan indicates that the internal layout of the settlement initially comprised two rectangular blocks of land either side of the High Street - extending from the northern line of the old sixth/seventh century defences (Pump Street/Copenhagen Street), which were probably levelled during this period, up towards the northern wall of the new burh (to Bank Street/ St Swithin’s Street). These blocks, initially divided into four plots either side of the street (which would have been much broader than that of today), would have contained a thriving market place - although the early town would have looked more like a village, with cattle and other goods being brought in from farms and estates kept in large open plots containing a low density of buildings. As the settlement prospered these large plots were sub-divided, with development spreading southwards to link up with the Cathedral Close (over the earlier settlement defences), westwards towards Birdport (now part of Deansway) and the river, and eastwards up to the line of the burh defences. While archaeological evidence for this period is slight, evidence for bone/horn working and lime-burning have been found along Deansway, while a corn-drier was discovered outside the defences at Blackfriars. Pottery was being traded in the city from as far away as Stafford and Stamford, and a lead striking of a silver coin of King Aethelred (c. A.D.991-7), found on the line of the old main Roman road at Blackfriars (which by this time had been relegated to a muddy track) may have been a discarded token used to pay tolls.

In A.D. 904, in return for their earlier favours, Bishop Waerfirth gave Aethelred and Aethelflaed a parcel of land, a haga, in the north-western part of the town, on the river between Copenhagen Street, All Saints Church, and present day Deansway. While the haga may have contained a royal residence, the value of the land lay in its waterfront (for trade and warehousing), although it also occupied a strategic position on the burh’s north-western gateway (at the present juncture of Bridge Street, Broad Street and Deansway) to which All Saints may have been the gate-church - note that the central part of present day Deansway was originally called Birdport, previously Bridport Strete whose derivation might be ‘the gate of the Britons’. This gate overlooked the approach roads to the river-crossing as well as a market place which survived, as All Hallows, until the time of Henry VII (1485-1509) when it was moved to Angel Place (the area was still referred to as the Beast Market, however, throughout the 18th century).

As the population of the town increased, assessed at 1200 hides in the 10th century Burghal Hideage (1 hide = 1 man) and probably c. 2000 by the time of the Norman Conquest, so did the number of churches. By the late 11th century All Saints, St Andrew’s (Deansway) and St Swithin’s (St Swithin's Street) were all probably functioning as churches (although none of their Saxon fabric survives) in addition to the earlier established St Margaret’s, St Helen’s and St Alban’s, while in the 960s Bishop Oswald (later St Oswald) replaced the secular priests serving the Cathedral with a more formal monastic community (Benedictines) for whom he built a new cathedral dedicated to Christ and St Mary. Completed by A.D. 983, this new Cathedral functioned alongside St Peters which survived as a building until the 11th century after which nothing is heard of it. The site of St Mary’s lies beneath the present Cathedral, and while the building itself is no longer visible, walls in the cloisters and in the refectory undercroft are probably surviving parts of the late Saxon monastic complex.

Outside the burh walls, the church of St Martin (Trinity Street/ Cornmarket) was established just outside the gateway on the approach road from Droitwich, while in the south-eastern suburb outside the Sidbury gateway, lay the churches of St Peter the Great and St Godwald (or Gudwal). While St Peter the Great survived as a church until 1976 (now part of the Royal Worcester site on King Street), St Godwald’s never acquired parochial rights and in the 13th century became known as St Wulstan's hospital (now the Commandery Civil War centre), although Wulstan himself had nothing to do with the establishment of this facility.

This period also sees the formalisation of the city’s various holdings on the west bank, with charters witnessing the dealings of the Priory’s estate at Wick, and with at least five houses being owned in the area which later became the medieval suburb of St John’s. The church of St Cuthbert at Lower Wick, adjacent to the river-crossing to Great Malvern (on the present day site of Manor Farm, Malvern Road) was probably established during this period, although the role of parish church was taken over by the church of St John in Bedwardine (in St John’s) during the later medieval period and St Cuthbert’s, to which St John’s had originally been a cemetery chapel, was abandoned - although the building itself was incorporated into a manorial complex in the later medieval period, as a barn, and still survives on the site today.

In the rural hinterland on the east bank of the river, the Saxon bishops established their primary rural residence at Northwick (in the parish of Claines, near to the Severn, where it remained until the later medieval period when this was moved to Hartlebury Castle), while charters show dealings in estates at Battenhall (St Peter the Great’s parish) and possibly also at Lyppard (St Martin's parish). At Warndon, the church of St Nicholas was probably founded during this period (within the control of St Helen’s, note, not the Cathedral), and later became incorporated within the site of an important medieval manorial complex owned by the Beauchamp family (on the site of present day Warndon Court Farm, adjacent to M5 Junction 6).

The picture of late Saxon Worcester is of a rich and thriving town, with a well managed rural hinterland, and with an economy driven by a mixture of trade and local manufacturing supported by taxes levied on the river and road traffic passing through the settlement. While the town seems to have prospered despite the Viking threat, and raids are recorded in the southern part of the Severn Valley in A.D. 893-4 and A.D. 917, Florence of Worcester (the monk John of Worcester), writing in the 12th century tells how in A.D. 1041 the Danish King Harthacnut tried to raise taxes from the citizens of Worcester who, outraged at the prospect, murdered the tax-collector and nailed his skin to the cathedral door. In retaliation Harthacnut sent a raiding party which arrived to find the citizens of Worcester and the surrounding countryfolk had fled to Bevere Island (in the Severn near Claines) where they ‘defended themselves vigorously against their enemies’. The Danish raiders sacked the town, possibly dismantling the northern part of the burh defences, and left.

By the time the Normans arrived, therefore, the foundations of the later medieval town had been firmly laid, and although their arrival heralded significant changes for the local population, the Saxon character of the settlement and its buildings probably survived well into the 13th century.

This period provides us with the earliest surviving Old English name for Worcester - Weogornaceaster or Weogernaceaster (A.D. 691) - with latinized versions such as Weogorna civitas (A.D. 691) and castra Weogernensis (A.D. 736-7) also in use at this time.