It contains several funerary monuments, including those of King John; Arthur, Prince of Wales; and the prime minister Stanley Baldwin.

[5] The cathedral community was regulated along formal monastic lines as a consequence of the Benedictine reforms in the second half of the tenth century (one author gives the time range 974–977; another considers 969 more likely).

The cathedral priory, one of a number of religious institutions in the city,[7] was a major landowner and economic force, in both Worcester and the county.

The Church received a portion of local taxations, and administered ecclesiastical law as applied to Christian morals, which could result in punishments.

Peter of Blois was commissioned by a Bishop of Worcester, probably John of Coutances, to write a significant anti-Judaic treatise Against the Perfidy of Jews around 1190.

[11] As elsewhere in England, Jews were officially compelled to wear rectangular white badges, supposedly representing tabulae.

In response, the Papacy demanded that Christians be prevented from working in Jewish homes, "lest temporal profit be preferred to the zeal of Christ", and insisted on enforcement of the wearing of badges.

There were 35 Benedictine monks plus the Prior Holbeach at the time of dissolution, probably 16 January 1540; eleven were immediately given pensions, while the remainder became secular canons in the new Royal College.

[17] Worcester declared itself for the Crown and was quickly occupied by extra Royalist forces, who were using the building to store munitions when the Earl of Essex briefly retook the city after a skirmish on its outskirts.

[20] In the 1860s, the cathedral was subject to major restoration work planned by Sir George Gilbert Scott and A. E. Perkins.

An image of the cathedral's west facade appeared on the reverse of the Series E British £20 note commemorating Sir Edward Elgar, issued between 1999 and 2007, remaining in circulation as legal tender until 30 June 2010.

The nave was built and rebuilt piecemeal and in different styles by several different architects over a period of 200 years, from 1170 to 1374, some bays being a unique and decorative transition between Norman and Gothic.

[3][24] The oldest parts show alternate layers of green sandstone from Highley in Shropshire and yellow Cotswold limestone.

[25] The east end was rebuilt over the Norman crypt by Alexander Mason between 1224 and 1269, coinciding with, and in a very similar Early English style to, Salisbury Cathedral.

From 1360, John Clyve finished off the nave, built its vault, the west front, the north porch and the eastern range of the cloister.

Some early 17th century screens and panelling, removed from the choir and organ casing in 1864, are now at Holy Trinity Church, Sutton Coldfield.

An epitaph in Latin to Henry Bright, headmaster of the King's School, Worcester, can be found near the north porch.

[27] Other notable burials include: The Cathedral Library at Worcester, located since the 19th century in the loft above the South Nave, contains 289 medieval manuscripts, 55 incunabula, and 6600 post-medieval printed books.

Of particular note are the Worcester Antiphoner (the only book of its kind to survive the Reformation), the will of King John, and a 1225 copy of Magna Carta.

Worcester Cathedral is unique in having a purpose-built teaching centre equipped with eight special training bells, linked to computers.

There have been many re-builds and new organs in the intervening period, including work by Thomas Dallam, William Hill and most famously Robert Hope-Jones in 1896.

[33] This organ (apart from the large transept case and pedal pipes) was removed in 2006 in order to make way for a new instrument by Kenneth Tickell, which was completed in the summer of 2008.

[35] Notable organists at Worcester have included Thomas Tomkins (from 1596), Hugh Blair (from 1895), Ivor Atkins (from 1897) and David Willcocks (from 1950).