 Tradition would suggest that the first building on the Commandery site was constructed in the 11th century on the orders of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester (later Saint Wulfstan), as a hospital or almshouse (today a hospice) for the terminally ill and the destitute and pilgrims.Medieval pictures believed to have been made about 1490 were found in 1935 in what may have been a specially painted chamber for the dying, the pictures showing the life to come.The first written record of its existence does not occur until the 13th century, in 1240 in "The Miracles of St. Wulfstan".