Choristers

Summary. Boy choristers were present from 1265 and men singers from c. 1310. Plainsong or plainchant was sung in the 13th century, and by the 14th century it had become elaborate with music written for various voices and accompanied by the organ. Girl choristers formed in 2006.

     Boy trebles were singing in cathedrals as early as the year 909 when boys sang in Wells Cathedral. Perhaps, choristers were as early as this in the second cathedral at Lichfield. A precentor was listed at Lichfield by the middle of the 12th-century.[1] The earliest record of a choir is around 1265 when six choristers were chosen by the bishop and led by a precentor and a deputy called a sub-chanter. There was a succentor, who was said to rule the song school through his official. Later the succentor became the permanent head of the newly formed vicars choral, c. 1310, which gave him independence from the precentor. A Master Peter is listed in 1272, and he might have been the teacher of the choir. The succentor was required to prepare performances of pastoral plays for Christmas Eve, and miracle plays on Easter Eve and Easter Monday.[2]

Woodcut from 1479 depicting a medieval choir scene from 'Der Spiegel des Menschlichen lebens' in Augsburg, Germany.

 In the 14th-century, eight choristers wore surplices and caps and were paid a penny each for attending certain special services. They earned a pension on retirement. In 1315, Bishop Langton provided accommodation in the Vicar’s Close for Lay Vicars indicating the male choir was now residentiary.

AI gen. medieval choristers and Lay Vicars in the cathedral 

The earliest singing would have been plainsong or plainchant. If Lichfield was like elsewhere, from the early part of the 14th-century polyphony (literally many sounds) was sung on special occasions.[3] Only a fraction of the music has survived, though composers like John Dunstaple (or Dunstable) were known throughout Europe.[4] His compositions mostly used 3, 4, or 5 parts sung by men and boys.

By 1535, there were twelve choristers and services increased in number including one in the night. Choristers were now taught to read music (pricksong), sing a range of church music, and play the organ. In 1547, the Vicars Choral were allowed one month's leave each year, and the master of the choristers took on the role of choosing and managing the choristers. Bishop Hales left money in 1490 to build a house for the choristers to live together, and this was thought to have been completed on the north side of The Close c. 1511. Entrance was by a fine gateway. In 1527, the house had its own cook.

 AI rendition of the gateway to the Chorister’s House, drawn in 1773. The inscription is ‘Domus Choristes’.

 

          After Reformation, 1534, music was purged of idolatrous elements.[5] Music was now set to parts of the Book of Common Prayer. This was a change from chant in Latin to singing in the vernacular.[6] The sung vernacular psalm would have been the main music. 

 

In the late 15th-century to the early 16th, a boy-bishop, sometimes called a chorister-bishop, was chosen by fellow choristers on St Nicholas Day, 6th December, and later led a service on Holy Innocents' Day, 28 December. It marked the answer given by Jesus as to who is the greatest. “Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me; for the least among all of you is the greatest.” (Luke Chapter 9 v 46). The festival occurred all over England. How this role-reversal played out at Lichfield is unknown, but if similar, to the service elsewhere the boy was dressed in full bishop's robes with mitre and crozier, and with other boys dressed as assisting priests, they might enter the town to bless the people. There was then a service in the cathedral with the boys occupying the chancel and the adults sitting elsewhere. In some cathedrals the adults occupied the front choir stalls and the choristers sat behind. Special hymns were sung as the boy-bishop presided over the whole, including a sermon, and gave blessings to the church.  A wealthy parishioner often invited all to a feast, though in some cathedrals this was forbidden. At St Paul’s the boy-bishop rode on a horse around the town and at York made journeys through the countryside collecting money. The ritual was abolished by the time of Reformation, 1534.

Head of a boy wearing a medieval bishop’s mitre and assumed to be a boy-bishop. 

AI gen. Boy Bishop head statue in the chapterhouse. Be3low is an AI redition of the head.

  

 Another ritual was to sing from the slit windows on the west front on Palm Sunday. It is a re-enactment of Jesus entering the gates of Jerusalem. Seven choristers had to sing the possibly 9th-century hymn ‘All Glory, Laud and Honour’ as the congregation approached the west front of the cathedral, having processed around the outside of the cathedral. The hidden voices would appear as if the angel statues on the front were singing.

          A third ancient custom was for choristers at Christmas to call at houses with a cup and insist on money or drink. This tradition of wassailing included the eating of Simnel cake with the drink.

         

          In the 16th century the works of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd were prominent. Difficulties singing their compositions would have tasked the combined men and boy choirs. It would have needed trained instrumentalists. Choral Evensong is often presumed to have been common to this time, but this is not true. Hymns, sung responses, canticles and anthems simply did not exist.[7]  The most commonly sung music was from Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkin’s book, The Whole Book of Psalmes, Collected into English Meter, 1562. There were no organ accompaniment and no harmony. The congregation would follow the parish clerk or cantor line-by-line. This was the music of Anglican worship for over 200 years.[8]

          In the 1580s after the loss of pilgrimage and revenue, there were eight choristers and by 1600, there were few choristers and little money to pay them. They were no longer living together in a chorister’s house. Between 1610 and 1618, the composer Michael East became master of the choristers and remained until his death in 1648. He wrote many anthems used in the cathedral. He built a schoolroom for the choristers above the adjoining gateways of two canonical houses. After the Civil War destruction and by 1663, the choristers' music school was reopened. Little is known about the choir for the next two centuries, but it is assumed the music tradition was being cared for. The works of Henry Purcell would have been favoured and required highly trained singers and instrumentalists. The chorister’s house was rebuilt in 1772.

          In 1794 there were eight choristers which in 1861 increased to ten. The choristers and probationers were now given free education from a schoolmaster appointed in 1866. By the 19th century the metrical psalm tradition was seen as dreary and often sung badly. Church music was now being influenced by compositions from outside of the church. Folk songs, mixed bands and dance tunes began to influence music particularly in non-conformist churches. Many hymns were written in the 18th and 19th centuries, especially in Dissenting Chapels. High Church Anglican clergy frowned on this new, popular singing and choral reform became the response. In time, this became choirs singing and the congregation listening; congregational participation was minimal. Music was entirely with an organ. The choir became positioned close to the clergy and not the congregation. The challenge for cathedrals was to find, and fund trained singers. Schools of church music began to be founded and financed.

 

During the early 20th-century, the choristers were housed and educated in Dam Street, outside the Cathedral Close. By the 1930s, the number of choristers had risen to 18, and there were 36 boys, two sets of 18, receiving free education at the chapter's expense. In 1942, the preparatory school was named St. Chad's Cathedral School and feepaying non-choristers were admitted. From 1955, the school occupied the Bishop's Palace. In 1970, there were around 80 boys in the school, of which 18 were choral scholars with fees paid by the chapter. Girls were admitted to the school for the first time in 1974 and a girl choir started in 2006.[9]

          Lichfield Cathedral Chorus, originally Lichfield Cathedral Special Choir, was formed in 1959. Lichfield Cathedral Chamber Choir was formed in 1980–1.

 

          In the cathedral library is a highly valued ‘First Book of Selected Church Music’ from 1641 and known as ‘The Barnard Part Books’. It is seven of the original ten volumes of the first printed collection of music with works by Gibbons, Byrd, Tallis, Morley, Tye, Batten, Parsons and Shepperd. The leather-bound volumes were the work of John Barnard of St Pauls who dedicated them to Charles I.

 

          Paradoxically, cathedrals might have in recent years grown their congregations because of the decline in traditional music and liturgy in parish churches.[10] The success of cultural, ethnic and diverse religions in alternative churches must be connected to their new musical traditions. Clearly, choirs and new forms of music have become an essential part of worship. The cathedral is now a venue for all sorts of musicians and singers as well as concerts.

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[1] K. Edwards, The English Secular Cathedrals in the Middle Ages, 2^nd ed. (Manchester: 1967), 160.

[2] Ibid, 172.

[3] N. Orme, Going to Church in Medieval England, (Yale: 2021), 78.

[4] J. Morris, A people’s church. A history of the church of England. (London: 2022), 258.

[5] Ibid. 259. Idolatry included references to purgatory, invocation of the saints, transubstantiation, and reference to the pope. Settings to Marian texts were ignored.

[6] Ibid. 260.

[7] Ibid 262. The commonest singing was of ‘metrical psalms’ with a regular metre capable of being sung by the most untrained individual.

[8] Ibid. 263

[9] Salisbury Cathedral was the first to have a girl choir, formed in 1991.

[10] J. Morris (2022), 278.

The Close

 Summary. The layout of The Close has been relatively unchanged since medieval times with a bishop’s palace, deanery, canon houses and lodges for assisting priests occupying the same location. Even restoration from a Civil War gave little change. It is special.

Lichfield (Licitfelda) in the 7th to 9th-centuries probably had some kind of vallum enclosing a hamlet. If it was a ditch and bank it would keep in livestock and keep out wildlife. If it was a defensive earth rampart, it might have resembled the conjectured bank, ditch and palisade fencing reconstructed from excavations around Tamworth and dated 10th-century. Between 1129 and 1135, there is some evidence of a ditch being dug around a coalescing settlement. This was during Roger de Clinton’s episcopate, 1129-48, and plaques around the town attribute the town ditch to his time.[1] His boundary could now be defensive, and separated the second cathedral from the hamlets at Gaia, Sandford and Stowe.  

The Gough Map is the earliest map of Lichfield. Its precise date and authorship are unknown, and is named after Richard Gough, who bequeathed the map to the Bodleian Library in Oxford 1809. Lichfield is not shown with an enclosed wall like Stafford.

 

Possible early medieval layout of Lichfield, c. 1100, much before construction of the town, the Minster Pool and third cathedral. Adapted from A. Sargent[2]

Slater's idea of The Close around the year 1100[3]

Bassetts idea of The Close in 1150,[4]

 

          It is unknown when the area around the cathedral was first used with buildings for the clergy, but it could date to the 10th-century.[5] The Close occupies around 16 acres of a sandstone platform that slopes downwards from northwest to the southeast. According to a late 13th-century description, the cathedral lay between Lemansyche and Way Clife, evidently two roads. Lemonsyche may have been an early name for Gaia Lane, along the north side of The Close and Way Clife may have been the road along the south side of the cathedral. From the mid or late 12th-century a supply of fresh water was piped from springs at Pipe.[6] 

In 1299, around 30 years before completion of the cathedral, Bishop Walter de Langton obtained a licence[7] to strengthen and crenellate the boundary walls. This wall gave security and quiet to Langton’s palace and to the canon’s houses in The Close. In 1317 and 1322, Edward II ordered The Close to be securely defended on his behalf.[8] In 1327, some gentry took refuge in The Close and it seems it was now well defendable. Nine houses were listed in 1380–1, eight were occupied by canons and one by a laywoman. The Close became self-governing in 1441. By then there were 26 ‘mansions’ in The Close including that of the bishop.

Canon’s assisting priests

Where the priests lived in the 13th-century is unknown. In 1314, two courts surrounded by houses were built in the northwest corner of The Close for vicars who sang in the services and gave diverse administration to the cathedral. It was called ‘The Vicarage’, but is now known as the Vicar’s Close. The two courts, north and south, might not have been constructed at the same time, but there were 32 priest assistants working in the cathedral, and it is possible there were around 30 lodgings initially. The south court was renamed ‘Darwin Close’ in 1998. The room over the entry to the Close was a chapel for those vicars who could not access the cathedral. Many lived two to a room and all shared a communal hall. A kitchen is mentioned in 1329. Dendrochronology of timbers in 1, 2, 3, and 8 Vicar’s Close give a date around 1470. A fireplace uncovered in No. 1 has been dated c. 1570. Early 15th-century the houses were repaired and in 1474 was added an infirmary, chapel and muniment room. On the south side of the complex was a latrine with two chambers thought to be for men and women.[9]

AI rendition of a photograph of  houses in The Vicar’s Close together with a medieval priest.

Bishop’s Palace

            A bishop’s ‘old hall’ existed in the northeast corner of The Close until Bishop Langton built a palace against the east wall of The Close and probably had it completed by 1299.[10] It was 320 feet long and 160 feet wide. The dean's habitation, adjoining the palace was half the dimensions in length and breadth and the dwellings of the canons were half again in their dimensions. The palace had polygonal towers and turrets modelled on Caernarvon castle and was surrounded by its own wall giving maximum security. Langton built the surrounding wall for his own security; it was equivalent to a castle. See the post, ‘Bishop Langton’s Palace’ for a good description of this lavish complex.

Choristers

Bishop Hales left money in 1490 to build a house for the choristers to live together, and this was thought to have been completed on the north side of The Close c. 1511. Entrance was by a fine gateway built in the 1530s. The houses and gateway were demolished in 1773.

 

A reconstructed plan of The Close showing the Bishop’s Palace, Deanery and Vicar’s Close. The location of the houses for choristers is thought to be against the north wall. The moat extended three sides of The Close, but not on the north side until the 1640s. The area under the red circle would have been guarded.

AI rendition of the gateway to the chorister’s houses.

          St Mary’s house was integrated into the southeast curtain wall and still shows a turret and arrow slit windows.  

St Mary’s house corner.

Chantry priests

          On the south side were built houses for the chantry priests in 1411. The houses surrounded an elongated courtyard with a chapel at the end. At one time there were 17 chantry priests serving at least 13 altars. The priests were near the south door to receive pilgrims and penitents who had been ferried across the middle of Minster Pool. In 1468, Dean Heywood provided better houses with heating and glazing as well as a brewhouse and bakehouse. 

 

          There was much damage resulting from the three years of Civil War, 1643-6. The palace and several houses, especially on the north side, were badly damaged. Five of the 20 houses in the Vicar’s Close were ruined. At the Restoration Bishop Hacket considered the palace beyond repair and chose to occupy a house on the south side of the Close, later the site of no. 19. A new palace was built on the old site in 1687. A new deanery was built in the 1680s, but remodelled c. 1708. Other houses were restored by their ccupants. When Daniel Defoe visited the Close in the earlier 1720s, he was impressed by the 'great many very well-built houses'.[11] An interpretation of the layout of The Close in the 17th-century has been published.[12]

AI rendition of an early photograph of the second Bishop’s Palace. In 1952 it became a Cathedral School.

 

In the late 1730s the chapter voiced concern about tradesmen coming to live in the Close. A glover came in 1728, a weaver in 1730 and 1743, and a tailor in 1754. A printer had his works in the Close in 1752, and there was a joinery and chairmaking business at least between 1755 and 1762. Private schools were run in the later 18th century.[13] By the late 18th-century trees had been planted to mark out a walk along the north and east sides. Houses on the west side of the Vicars’ Close were remodelled to front Beacon Street. Selwyn House was built in 1780 by a canon on the east side, and other houses were built in the west ditch of the Close. In 1800, Newton's College was built on the south side of the road from Beacon Street. It required the demolition of the medieval west gate and a corner house. An Act of 1797 arranged for the dean and six canons to be assigned a particular house and in 1840 this was reduced to four houses. Nearly all the houses in the Close, including the palace, were owned by the dean and chapter.

          The Close layout is one of the best surviving layouts from the Middle Ages.[14] The location of houses for the clergy in the 13th-century is very similar to that in the 18th-century. By the end of the 18th-century people with wealth and stature dominated The Close and gave it status. It included Erasmus Darwin, 1731-1802, and Anna Seward, 1742-1809. In1854, the Marquis of Anglesey was interred in the vault under the Consistory Court.

AI rendition of the procession of the Marquis of Anglesey.    

AI rendition of his internment in a subterranean vault.

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[1] Clinton also fortified Coventry as part of the siege during the Anarchy. A ditch 1.58 m deep and 7.5 m wide has been excavated at the cathedral site in Coventry.

[2] A. Sargent, ‘Early medieval Lichfield. A reassessment’. Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions, (2013), 1–32.

[3] T. R. Slater, ‘The topography and planning of Medieval Lichfield. A critique. South Staffordshire archaeological and historical society transactions for 1984-1985. (1986), 26, 11-35.

[4] [4] S. R. Bassett. ‘Medieval Lichfield: A topographical review. South Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society transaction. (1980), 22, 117, Fig. 5B.

[5] A cathedral close is an enclosed precinct surrounding a cathedral, functioning as an ecclesiastical enclave that houses residences, administrative buildings, and communal facilities for the clergy, chapter, and associated staff.

[6] See the post, ‘12th-century Lichfield’.

[7] April 20, 1299 page 409 in Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward I, Volume 3.

[8] J. Gould, Medieval Cathedral and Close. (1981), 1-8.

[9] W. Rodwell, ‘A small quadrangle of low-built houses: The Vicar’s Close at Lichfield’, in Vicar’s choral at English Cathedrals, R. A. Hall and D. A. Stocker, (Oxford: 2005), 61-75.

[10] It might not have been completed until 1314, when Langton visited Lichfield. VCH volume 14, suggests work began on the palace in 1304 and was completed by 1314.

[11] D. Defoe, Tour thro' the Whole Island of Gt. Brit. (1927), ii. 479.

[12] N. J. Tringham, ‘Two seventeenth-century surveys of Lichfield Cathedral Close,’ South Staffordshire Arch. and Hist. Soc. Trans. For 1983-84. (1985), 25, 35-49.

[13] M W Greenslade ed., 'Lichfield: The cathedral close', A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield, (London, 1990), 47-67.

[14] N. Tringham, ‘The houses of The Close and their occupants’. Unpub. paper in the cathedral library, (2006), 21-34.