The Close
The Close In Cathedral Close, thanks
to careful stewardship, little has changed over the years
except for the better. Wartime raiders left few permanent
scars, perhaps the most obvious being the site of No
63, now a car park. Here, until burned down in the
raid of 27th June 1942, was a commodious house (right),
built in the nineteenth century to the south of the
Cloisters, on part of the site of the old monastic
Infirmary. Three massive pillars, of late twelfth century
style, standing in the garden in front of this house,
were then the chief visible remains of that earlier
edifice. They had previously been incorporated in a
workhouse that was pulled down in 1804. Etchings made by
the Reverend Andrew Gooch and David Hodgson just after
demolition had started clearly show how much of the
fabric of the Infirmary had formed part of this later
building. After the war, when the ruins of the house were
cleared away, two further pillars were brought to light
and allowed to remain along with the others open to view.Text and photographs Copyright © G.A.F.Plunkett 2004 |