The Residence And Vicars Court And Adjoining Boundary Walls

The Residence, Vicars' Court, and adjoining boundary walls are a significant example of late 17th and 18th century domestic architecture in Southwell. The Residence itself was built in 1689 for William Mompesson, with a rear wing added by William Handley in 1772. It was refronted by William Lumby in 1785, and further remodelled and extended by Richard Ingleman in 1806. North and south wings were removed in 1956.

The Residence's west front displays a Classical Revival style, with a plinth, sill band, eaves cornice, and balustrade. It is two storeys plus a basement, with a five-window range, featuring a projecting pedimented centre. A central Doric doorcase with a pediment and half-glazed door is accessed by stone steps with a scrolled handrail. The rear has a projecting central wing extending to the east, featuring a two-storey canted bay window and an external, lozenge-shaped stack to the north. Inside, the dogleg staircase has a cut string and stick balusters.

The Vicars' Court comprises four houses, possibly built by William Lumby in 1779, arranged around a rectangular courtyard. The Residence connects them at the east end. Each house has plinths, chamfered eaves, openings with rubbed brick heads, hipped plain tile roofs, and two large ridge stacks. Windows are glazing bar sashes, and doors are six-panelled. The houses are two storeys plus attics, with a five-window range and two flat-roofed dormers to each side. A mid-19th century addition with two small sashes and a doorway is visible between the southern pair, and a coped wall with a central iron gate between the northern pair. The west-facing ends of the houses, overlooking the Minster churchyard, have two blank windows on each floor.

An ashlar boundary wall links the west ends of the houses, featuring gabled coping and a central gate with obelisk-shaped piers. To the north, facing Church Street, each house has three windows on each floor, with a coped wall and a central pedimented gateway between them. An adjoining boundary wall to the left includes an off-centre gateway with rusticated piers and a wrought iron gate. Approximately 60 metres long, these buildings historically served as residences for Vicars Choral and the Canon Residentiary of the Minster.