Before the Reformation there was a building on this site which housed the priest who served the Crown Chantry in the cathedral. Bishop Seth Ward purchased the freehold from a city merchant Thomas Hawles for the building of a Matrons College to provide a sheltered home for ten widows of clergy, from the Diocese of Salisbury and Exeter. Although the architecture is very much of the style created by Christopher Wren there is no indication that he had any part in the design of the College. It was completed in March 1682 by Thomas Glover, a builder in Harnham, across the River Avon, at a cost of £1,193 12s 6d and the detailed specifications for the building, down to the locks, keys and purbeck floor stones are still kept in the cathedral archives.

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Text by John Bushell - Photographs by Roger Croft
Extracts from the Salisbury Cathedral Close Guide - © Copyright, Close Publications 1997