The Cathedral Library is older than the present Cathedral. There is a record of a gift of a book to the Church of Worcester as long ago as 780 A.D by King Offa ;
'a great book with golden clasps', probably a Bible, 'and laid on the altar'. Then a volume of King Alfred's time is to be seen in the Bodleian Library, inscribed: 'This book shall to Wigora cestre'. Thus we have, at all events, two books identified as belonging to the library at Worcester long before the Norman Conquest.