Worcester No. 11 / St. Michael Bedwardine / Uueogorna / Vveogorna / Weogorna / Wigornia / Wirccester / Wirecestre

There are three entries for Worcester [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SO8454/worcester/] [accessed 30 October 2014], neither of which mention cleric or church in it. The churchwardens' accounts for this church from 1539 to 1603 were published in 1896 by John Amphlett; as the introduction in it notes, "A font is never mentioned throughout the accounts". The original church may have dated from the 9th or 10th century, but Miller (1890) reports that "it was rebuilt in 1840" and, unfortunately, gives no information on the old building; he does, however, provide the name and date of the first recorded rector here, "Will'us de Norton ...] 1280". It served as cemetery chapel to the cathedral; the new church was built on College St., and was later united with St. Helen's. The ca. 1760 Sketch of the Antiquities of the Ancient City of Worcester (p. 9) notes, St. Michael's was a rectory in the patronage of the dean of Worcester, and the church itself was located near the northeast corner of the cathedral grounds; it was an ancient building, and this source remarks that was originally, "in all probabbility, part of the genuine vestigia of St. Oswald's Cathedral". We know that parochial functions were regularly discharged at this church [e.g.: "Mary Instone who married David Watkins at St. Michaels Church, Bedwardine, Worcester on May 1st 1747." [www.surnamedb.com/Surname/instone] [accessed 3 November 2014]. The Victoria County History (Worcester, vol. 4, 1924) notes: "The church of ST. MICHAEL stood just to the east of the great belfry within the cathedral precinct, and consisted of a small nave and chancel under one roof, and a wooden tower porch on the south-west [...] The church was pulled down early in the 19th century and a new church built adjoining Lich Street, which in turn is now converted into a muniment room for the episcopal papers."