THE CATHEDRAL LANDSCAPE of YORK the Minster Close C. 1500
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THE CATHEDRAL LANDSCAPE OF YORK The Minster Close c. 1500-1642 2 Volumes: volume 1 Stefania Merlo Perring, MA PhD Medieval Studies September 2010 Abstract Abstract This thesis is an interdisciplinary study of the York Minster Close between c.1500 and 1642. It seeks to develop a contextual understanding of the topographical and morphological development of York cathedral Close between the late fifteenth and the mid seventeenth century. The cathedral settlement represented a rare concentration of economic, temporal and spiritual power within medieval society. This study aims to establish the impact on the cathedral landscape of contemporary social, political and religious changes. It will explore the growing tensions between the Archbishop and Dean and Chapter and between the cathedral and the city. It will also try to understand how the heterogeneous communities who inhabited and frequented the Close were connected to ideas of landscape and environment. Finally it will be concerned with the Close as an urban space and will question how processes of urban change, such as decay and improvement affected it. Although the sources used for investigating the material culture of the Close are in great part documentary, the theoretical approach taken is drawn from post- processualist archaeology, interpretative anthropology and new history. The overall aim is to provide a narrative as a “thick description”, moving through the different cultural layers that composed this landscape. York escaped large-scale institutional change, but the concepts of ‘sacred space’ which had so dominated its medieval character, was transformed. Outward conformity masked the deliberate concealment of precious objects such as St. William’s shrine, whilst liturgy and literacy became closely entwined with the growth of the print and bookselling trades around the Minster. The presence of the Council of the North enhanced the role of the ecclesiastical and civil courts. New communities of lawyers, shopkeepers and tradesmen appropriated, subdivided and sub-let the Close buildings and the later sixteenth and early seventeenth century were characterised by a period of large-scale investment and modernisation of medieval mansions, including Sir Arthur Ingram’s conversion of the former Archiepiscopal Palace to an urban residence and gardens. 2 Table of Contents Table of Contents VOLUME 1 Abstract ................................................................................................................. 2 Table of Contents ................................................................................................. 3 List of Illustrations ............................................................................................... 9 Abbreviations ..................................................................................................... 16 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. 17 Author's Declaration .......................................................................................... 18 CHAPTER 1. Introduction ............................................................................... 19 The Cathedral settlement ......................................................................... 19 Historiography of York Minster Close ..................................................... 21 York Minster in context ............................................................................ 25 1. 2 Theoretical and interpretative approaches ................................................ 33 Landscape ................................................................................................ 33 An archaeology of social practice ........................................................... 36 Reformation, continuity and change ........................................................ 37 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 39 1.3 Research agenda and methodology ............................................................ 40 Interdisciplinarity ..................................................................................... 40 Research questions ................................................................................... 43 The Sources. ............................................................................................. 44 Methodology ............................................................................................. 49 Structure of the study ............................................................................... 53 CHAPTER 2. The York Cathedral Settlement in the 16th and 17th Centuries: the Evidence ........................................................................................................ 55 2. 1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 55 The administrative boundary of the Close ............................................... 55 Chronology of redevelopment in the Close .............................................. 57 2. 2 The western area of the Close .................................................................. 58 2.2.1 The West Minster Yard ....................................................................... 58 The West Minster Gate ............................................................................. 59 3 Table of Contents Peter’s Prison .......................................................................................... 61 The “long shop” ....................................................................................... 62 The Office of the Secretary of the Council in the North ........................... 62 The Prebendal Mansion of South-Cave ................................................... 63 Shops built in the West Minster Yard ....................................................... 64 St Peter’s School? .................................................................................... 66 St Michael-le-Belfrey ............................................................................... 67 St Michael-le-Belfrey churchyard ............................................................ 68 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 68 2. 2. 2 Precentors’ Court ............................................................................. 69 The Wright House .................................................................................... 69 Street levels in Precentor’s Court ............................................................ 76 South-west Precentors’ Court and the Prebendal Mansion of Fenton .... 76 The Subdeanery ........................................................................................ 77 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 83 2. 3 The southern area of the Close ................................................................. 84 2. 3. 1 The south-west side of the cathedral ................................................. 84 Phase 1. From c. 1350 to 1544 ................................................................ 84 Phase 2. From 1544 to 1701 .................................................................... 85 Phase 3. From 1701 to 1715 .................................................................... 88 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 89 2. 3. 2 The south and south –east sides of the cathedral .............................. 89 Shop to the west side of the cathedral’s south door ................................. 90 Shops on the east side of the south doorway ............................................ 92 Open area to the east and south of the south transept ............................. 93 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 94 2. 3. 3 From the South Minster Gate to the Minster’s South Door .............. 94 The South Minster Gate ........................................................................... 94 Tenements on the corner between Petergate and Minster Gates ............. 96 The west side of Minster Gates ................................................................ 97 The Archbishop’s Exchequer Office ...................................................... 100 The east side of Minster Gates street ..................................................... 101 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 102 2. 4 The south-eastern area of the Close ........................................................ 103 2. 4. 1 The Deanery and the former prebendal house of Warthill .............. 103 4 Table of Contents The Deanery Yard and the Gatehouse ................................................... 107 The former Mansion of Warthill ............................................................ 109 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 110 2. 4. 2 From the Prebendal Mansion of Strensall to College Street. .......... 110 The site of the church of St Mary-ad-Valvas .......................................... 112 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 114 2. 5 The eastern area of the Close .................................................................