Diocese of Worcester

DIOCESE OF WORCESTER

Country : United Kingdom
Denomination : Anglican (until 1559 Roman Catholic)
Established : 680

Official blazon

Argent, ten torteaux, four, three, two and one.

Origin/meaning

The arms were recorded at the College of Arms.

This see dates from the division of the See of Lichfield in 679 or 680 when a separate diocese was formed for the Hwiccas, which tribal bishopric ultimately became that of Worcester. The small religious house of St. Peter, founded by Saxulph, was chosen as the seat of the bishopric. In the tenth century a connection between the archbishopric of York and the bishopric of Worcester grew up; four of the bishops held the See in plurality with York. St. Oswald (961-2) absorbed the old secular cathedral of St. Peter into the renewed Benedictine church of St. Mary, which by inheritance is now the cathedral. This church, completed in 983, had in a century given way to a new church built by Wulfstan II (1062-95).

These arms may have been those of Bishop Walter Giffard as they are to be found in a Roll of Arms of Edward I (Harl. MS. 6137) as the coat of the Bishop's elder brother Sir Alexander Giffard. They are first found on the episcopal seal of Thomas Peverall (1407-19) though they also occur on the fourteenth century seal of the Hospital of St. Wulstan at Worcester. They could then have been taken by the See to commemorate either St. Wulstan or Bishop Giffard in the same way that the arms of St. Thomas de Cantelupe were made to serve for Hereford.

There is an old legend that the roundels represent the sacred Host, from the Bishop of Worcester's privilege of celebrating Mass in the presence of the College of Bishops.

Arms of Roman Catholic Bishops

Roger of Gloucester (1164-1179)
Baldwin (1180-1184)
William de Northall (1186-1190)
Robert FitzRalph (1190-1193)
Henry de Soilli (1193-1195)
John of Coutances (1196-1198)
Mauger (1199-1212)
Walter de Gray (1214-1216)
Silvester of Evesham (1216-1218)
William of Blois (II) (1218-1236)
Walter Cantilupe (1236-1266)
Nicolas of Ely (1266-1268)
Godfrey Giffard (1268-1302)
Walter Gainsborough (1302-1307)
Walter Reynolds (1308-1313)
Walter Maidstone (1313-1317)
Thomas Cobham (1317-1327)
Adam Orlton (1327-1333)
Simon Montacute (1333-1337)
Thomas Hemenhale (1337-1338)
Wulstan Bransford (1339-1349 )
John of Thoresby (1349-1352)
Reginald Brian (1352-1361)
John Barnet (1362-1363)
William Whittlesey (1363-1368)
William de Lynn (1368-1373)
Henry Wakefield (1375-1395)
Tideman de Winchcombe (1395-1401)
Richard Clifford (1401-1407)
Thomas Peverel (1407-1419)
Philip Morgan (1419-1426)
Thomas Polton (1425-1433)
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Thomas Bourchier (1434-1443)
John Carpenter (1443-1476)
John Alcock (1476-1486)
Robert Morton (1486-1497)
Giovanni de' Gigli (1497-1498)
Silvestro de' Gigli (1498-1521)
Giulio de' Medici (1521-1522)
Girolamo Ghinucci (1522-1535)
Nicholas Heath (1543-1551 and 1554-1555)
Richard Pates (1555-1559)

Arms of Anglican Bishops

Hugh Latimer (1535-1539)
John Bell (1539-1543)
John Hooper (1552-1554)
Edwin Sandys (1559-1570)
Nicholas Bullingham (1571-1576)
John Whitgift (1577-1583)
Edmund Freke (1584-1591)
Richard Fletcher (1593-1595)
Thomas Bilson (1596-1597)
Gervase Babington (1597-1610)
Henry Parry (1610-1616)
John Thornborough (1617-1641)
John Prideaux (1641-1650)
George Morley (1660-1662)
John Gauden (1662)
John Earle (1662-1663)
Robert Skinner (1663-1670)
Walter Blandford (1671-1675)
James Fletwood (1675-1683)
William Thomas (1683-1689)
Edward Stillingfleet (1689-1699)
William Lloyd (1699-1717)
John Hough (1717-1743)
Isaac Maddox (1743-1759)
James Johnson (1759-1774)
Brownlow North (1774-1781)
Richard Hurd (1781-1808)
Folliott Cornewall (1808-1831)
Robert Carr (1831-1841)
Henry Pepys (1841-1860)
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Henry Philpott (1860-1890)
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John James Steward Perowne (1890-1902)
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Charles Gore (1902-1905)
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Huysge Wolcott Yeatman-Biggs (1905-1918)
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Ernest Harold Pearce (1919-1931)
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Arthur William Thomson Perowne (1931-1941)
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William Wilson Cash (1941-1956)
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Lewis Charles-Edwards (1956-1971)
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Robin Woods (1971-1982)
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Philip Goodrich (1982-1996)
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Peter Selby (1997-2007)
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John Inge (2007-present)

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