Worcester monks knew how to organise, ahem, a party in a priory

The last of the priors, William More, reigned over a religious community whose strict rules of life had relaxed to the extent the jovial monks had come to understand very well the good things in life.

They kept a small army of cooks and kitchen menials and no expense was spared when it came to filling their tables with the  richest food. The Church was a grand landlord and most of its county tenants paid in game, venison or rabbits by the hundred.

An old drawing of Guesten Hall

At the time Worcester was a very important and fortified city, having the only bridge across the Severn between Gloucester and Bridgnorth, so was used to welcoming many distinguished travellers.

Hospitality abounded and the priory was at the centre of it, especially from Christmas Eve to New Year, when there were decorations of holly and ivy (but no mistletoe for that was associated with heathenism).

A drawing of the inside of Worcester Cathedral’s Guesten Hall by EG Street in 1859

The roistering began after evensong on Christmas night when the prior and his brethren welcomed the city bailiff and his corporation (dressed in scarlet gowns) to a grand feast in the priory’s Guesten Hall, which had been built in 1320 for the monks to entertain visitors and guests.

The tables groaned under the weight of boar’s heads, numerous dishes of venison, game, dumplings, peacock pie and the like. Also served were oranges, then a costly imported delicacy.

The classic view of Worcester Cathedral with the River Severn in the foreground

The food was accompanied by eight or nine varieties of sticky ales or wines, some so thick the guests filtered them through their teeth.

Should any important lady be staying at the Priory – not an uncommon event on the only road into Wales – a special dish of wafers or sweetmeats was prepared by the prior’s cook, while there was “a dish of mince pies for ye boyes” , presumably the cathedral choristers. Any leftovers or “culinary failures” were quietly conveyed to the occupants of the city prison which adjoined the Priory.

The Edgar Tower approach to Worcester Cathedral’s College Green in Regency times

According to historian John Noake: “The festivities continued right merrily until the New Year” when on New Year’s Eve there was another elaborate feast in the Guesten Hall, the excuse, if any were needed, being because the quantity of the prior’s gifts from his tenants had been so great it was necessary to “consume them forthwith” before they went off.

The magnificent Guesten Hall roof, some of which found a new home at Avoncroft Museum of Buildings near Bromsgrove

Among the gifts he received were a hundred couple of rabbits from Henwick, deer from Battenhall, herons and peacocks from Hallow, pigeons from Crowle and rooks from the Pakington estate at Hampton Lovett.

A drawing of Worcester Cathedral from across the river in 1815

However the great days of monastic feasting were drawing to a close as the dubious habits of the monks led to the great religious houses falling into decadence. The storm of the Dissolution, which eventually saw the priory dissolved in 1540, was gathering pace, but canny old Prior More saw it coming. He retired to his manor at Crowle in 1535 and a rather quieter life.