Details
WORCESTER
SO8554SW SIDBURY
620-1/20/539 (North East side)
22/05/54 The Commandery
(Formerly Listed as:
SIDBURY
The Commandery. No.1
The Commandery Drive)
(Formerly Listed as:
SIDBURY
(East side)
Nos.79 AND 79A)
(Formerly Listed as:
SIDBURY
(East side)
No.81)
(Formerly Listed as:
COMMANDERY DRIVE
No.1
Commandery House)
GV I
Also known as: St Wulstan's Hospital SIDBURY.
Also known as: St Wulstan's Hospital COMMANDERY DRIVE.
Museum of the Civil War. Originally a medieval hospital, since
the Reformation variously a private dwelling, Royalist
headquarters, college, and printing works. Founded in C11, but
earliest buildings (Hall range) C15, with considerable additions
and modifications from C16 to C19, major reinstatement and
restoration late 1980s by FWB Charles.
MATERIALS: substantial elements in timber framing, some with lath
and plaster, much brick infill, later work in brick, mainly
Flemish bond, often painted. Roofs plain tile on timber trusses.
PLAN: original hospital plan is not now legible, the earliest
plan unit being the Great Hall which lies well back from the road
(Sidbury) across the site, with a very long, mainly 2 storey wing
to the left (NW), adjacent to the later canal, and all in one
room thickness. At about midway to this wing a 3 storey
crosswing, with through-way. To the right (E) of the Hall a
further long wing projects forward towards the street, with 2
later arms towards the NE, and behind the Hall (to its S) a
substantial late C18 dwelling (formerly Commandery House) in 2
storeys and attics, with hipped roof. At the street front is a
short gabled 2 storey cottage unit with jetty (formerly 79 and
79a Sidbury). The whole complex forms an irregular but extended
'H' plan.
EXTERIOR: Street front is in 2-bays, in close studded framing,
and with bracing to the left return, the right return is
rendered, and continues with a later brick bay, with a 2-light
small pane casement above 16-pane sash. The front has a 2 and a
3-light above 2 display windows, all of these of late C20: except
to the C18 house unit terminating the right wing, most windows
are replacements dating from the 1980s work. The left wing is in
framing in square panel, to a continuous ridge but 3 slightly
stepped eaves levels, the last section with brick nogging. The
rear bays, beyond the through-way, are mainly square panel
framing with brickwork, but at about half-way is a higher gable
(to the Hall range), with a close studded gable and high
casement, above plain brickwork, the wing ends to a hip above a
garage door to brick floors, with various replacement casements
to each side, and one at eaves level facing the canal. A timber
bressumer spans the through-way, and a door to the left, and
within the passageway is a wide pair of doors to the right, and
smaller opening, left. The principal entrance to the museum is
just beyond the front cottage range.
The inner face to this wing, facing a narrow courtyard, is mainly
in painted brickwork, but with some residual framing, beyond the
hall, and principally framed, but with some brickwork, all
painted, in the forward part. The higher cross-range is in
painted brick, with hipped end. There are some original sashes
(ground floor) and casements (first floor) in the section
adjacent to the Hall. The Hall range retains substantial original
work, but in the C19 a throughway for carriages was cut through
at one end, so that much structural and other detail is careful
restoration. The front to the street has bays marked by bold
posts, with close stud infill. To the left is a wide pair of
doors, and at eaves level are two 4-light casements; to the right
is a projecting porch in 2 storeys, in framing, with hip above
door and casement. The far side has a small section of close
studded gables wing attached to the later brick house, linked by
lighter framing, above small doorway, to the bold hexagonal dais
bay. The bay has a decorative barge board, and tall narrow
casement lights with continuous transom at one-third height, and
above a brick breast wall. To the right are 4 bays detailed as to
the front, again with one 4-light high casement: the Hall
originally had more fenestration, probably as a continuous range,
at this eaves level. All this side is painted, and the extensive
roof slopes terminate in a plain ridge.
The house, attached to the Hall, has 3 blind openings to
segmental heads at each level, separated by a 3 course string,
and a fourth bay with a sash above C18 door. The outer end is in
2 gables, both rendered, but the first with some exposed
timbering to the gable, above a bold 2 storey hexagonal bay with
12-pane sashes, a further sash to the staircase, and a low door
(to the basement). The second gable is plain, and the main garden
front, which returns to a bold hipped end, is in 2-bays, with
small pane casements to flat-roofed dormers, above large flush
16-pane sashes at each level. A 3 course string divides the
levels, and returns to the left, with large external eaves stack,
door and sashes.
The long range to the left is in brick, with 3-course mid-string,
probably a refacing to the earlier structure at the time of the
building of the attached house. It is in 6-bays, with five 6-pane
and a pedimented door to the left, and four 12-pane, and a
16-pane above 20-pane, to the right. Beyond this are the 2 later
projecting wings, mainly in plain or painted brick, the furthest
with hipped roof, and linked to the main wing by a segmental
projection.
INTERIOR: interiors are very varied, with a complex mixture of
detail from the C15 onwards, including some careful restoration
of the late C20. Room numbers given in parentheses are those used
on the Museum's identification plans, only those of particular
interest are described here. The Great Hall (G11) has been
carefully restructured, following the removal of the C19
breakthrough with a carriageway. In 5-bays, with heavily moulded
trusses, modified in the C19 by the addition of a central moulded
tie at the level of the original hammer beams. Spandrels are
traceried, and 3 ranges of wind-bracing. At one end is the screen
in double height panelling with central door, under a balustrade
with barley twist balusters, at the dais end, with a bay window
to one side, the opposite side has a wide (3m) opening with
moulded jambs, giving to the entrance and staircase hall (G18).
At this end is bolection-mould panelling, and a slender post to
an opening beside the bay. Walls are close studded in heavy
timbers on a brick plinth, and the floor has brick paving at the
screens end, and 2-coloured diagonal tiling at the other,
continued into G18.
The main ground floor suite of rooms to the canal-side wing
(G1-G30), has been much modified, including insertion of a new
staircase in G8, but much early fabric remains. To the first
floor rooms F7 and F8 are noteworthy, as they include important
remains of C15 fresco painting to ceilings and soffits (uncovered
in 1935): subjects include a large central Trinity, and
martyrdoms of St Thomas Becket and St Erasmus. Close stud walling
is exposed, and in F8 the wind braced roof structure is visible.
In this wing towards the Sidbury end is a section without
intermediate flooring, rooms F4/G3 which were at one time the
brewery. In the other main wing the most significant survival is
the so called solar (F21), this is in 3-bays, with fully moulded
C15 braced tie-beam trusses having pierced panel spandrel fill,
moulded plate, moulded wind-bracing in 2 tiers, and moulded
purlins. At one end, adjoining the stair, is a heavy close
studded wall, incorporating an internal 4-light opening, and at
the other is a fireplace with early C18 bolection mould panelling
and fire surround. Rooms F18 and F19, beyond the staircase, have
fine Jacobean wall panelling (G18 to the outer wall), and F18 has
a very rich fire surround with 6-panel overmantel. The house
attached at the outer end to the wing (Rooms G12-G15 and F14-F17)
has mainly straight forward late C18 detailing, including many
2-panel fielded doors, and a tight open-well staircase with
square newels, turned on square balusters, broad handrail and
solid string, floors are generally in wide oak plank. G13, with
hexagonal bay, has a broad mid-ceiling chamfered beam, and a wide
elliptical recess with painted intrados adjacent to a C18 eared
fire surround under a Jacobean overmantel incorporating the
painted arms of Thomas Wylde II. Room F24, at the outer end of
the wing, includes a close studded wall and a C18 panelled fire
surround.
HISTORY: The Commandery, so named '....from the title which its
Masters assumed, who, in initiation of the superiors in military
convents, styled themselves Praeceptores or Commanders...'
(Marsh, p3), has a long and complex building history, reflected
in the diverse nature of its exterior forms and interior
detailing.
A hospital was founded here in the late C11, located at Sidbury
Gate, just outside the city precincts, and served travellers as
well as its few permanent inmates, who followed the Rule of St
Augustine, and known as the Hospital of St Wulstan (sic: Wulfstan
is an alternative spelling, normally used, for instance, with
reference to the Cathedral). Apart from a few stones from the
earliest extant structure is of the C15, in the Great Hall and
adjacent rooms: many alterations and additions have been made
since the House was dissolved in 1540, when it was granted to
Richard Morysyne for the sum of »14/3/5. The complex was leased
to Thomas Wylde, a clothier, in 1551, for »498, and remained with
this family until the mid C18 when it was purchased by John
Dandridge. The Wylde era is evident in may internal details,
particularly panelling, fireplaces, and the main staircase. The
Dandridges added domestic wings on the E side, including the
prominent house at the NE corner: this is not shown on a 1741
map, but appears on one of 1779, and is confirmed in its
detailing. In the middle C19 Richard Mence took over, and during
his occupancy much damage was done to the fabric; amongst other
modifications, he drove a carriageway through the Great Hall,
closing off the other half with a full-height heavy brick wall:
the Hall was carefully reconstructed in 1954, but the floor still
reflects the earlier subdivision, the black and white diagonal
quarries having been replaced by brick paviours at the screens
end. From 1866 to 1887 a school for blind people occupied the
premises, but after that, until bought by Worcester City Council
in 1873, the Littlebury family used them as a printing works,
undertaking many improvements, including reinstatement of the
Hall. In 1977 the property was opened to the public as a Museum
of the Civil War, substantial conservation and renewal work was
done in preparation for this. A tree-ring date of 1491 (felling
date) has been obtained from a board in the great hall roof.
Commandery House was listed on 5/4/1971.
(M Wood: The English Medieval House: 1965-; Old Worcester -
People and Places: Gwilliam HW: Old Worcester - People and
Places: Worcester: 1977-: 22 & 23; Buildings of England: Pevsner
N: Worcestershire: Harmondsworth: 1968-1985: 21,22,24,& 57;
Caroline Latta & Nicholas Molyneux: The Commandery or The
Hospital of St. Wulstan, Worcester: Worcester: 1981-; Nicholas
Molyneux, Pat Hughes, Stephen Price: Vernacular Architecture
Group Spring Conference - Worcestershire: 1995-: 2.1)
