Hall of the Vicars Choral, South Street

Overview

Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument

List Entry Number: 1003869

Date first listed: 10-Aug-1923

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

National Grid Reference: SX 91971 92504

Summary

The Hall of the Vicars Choral forming part of a medieval college 140m west of Exeter Cathedral.

Reasons for Designation

The term college is used to describe a variety of different types of establishment whose communities of secular clergy shared a degree of common life less strictly controlled than that within a monastic order. Although some may date to as early as the tenth century, the majority of English colleges were founded in the 14th or 15th centuries. Most were subsequently closed down under the Chantries Act of 1547. Colleges are extremely rare and are important for understanding ecclesiastical history.

Despite significant losses following the fire in 1942, the Hall of the Vicars Choral will contain important buried archaeological end environmental evidence relating to the college.

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 27 October 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 part of a 14th century college situated to the west of Exeter Cathedral on South Street. The college survives as part of a hall of which two walls with two traceried windows and the remains of the door jamb of the Church of St George remain standing. Other features are preserved as buried deposits. The college of the Vicars Choral was founded by Bishop Brantyngham in 1388. The hall was entered from the west side of Cathedral close. The building had been the dining hall of the college. It was oak panelled with a stone fireplace, heraldic and other carved panels and the royal arms of 1629 prior to its partial destruction during World War II. This was as a result of the Baederbeck raids when a fire gutted the building on May 4th 1942 following an air raid.

The Hall of the Vicars Choral is listed Grade II.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number: DV 87

Legacy System: RSM - OCN

Sources

Other
PastScape Monument No:- 448374

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.