St Annes Gate

St Anne's Gate is a Grade I listed building located in The Close, dating from around 1331 and later. It is a two-storey structure featuring a low, two-centred stone arch with continuous chamfers. This former chapel is illuminated by one window on both the east and west fronts, each consisting of two lights with curvilinear tracery and leaded glazing. The west side of the archway has suffered significant damage and has been rebuilt, and the west window has been renewed. The upper room of the gate belongs to Malmsbury House, No 15 The Close, and is accessed via a stone newel stair from the adjacent property.

To the left of the arch on the west front, there is a projecting brick gabled porch with one storey and an attic, featuring a two-light ogee arched casement in the gable and a pointed arched entrance. Inside, there is an old door beneath a pointed arch, complete with a roll mould and a drip mould above.

The east front of the gate is part of a long, unsymmetrical group of buildings, which includes the east end of No 14 to the left and the east front of No 15 to the right, with the Close Wall extending north and south. The east end of No 14 has a rectangular stone bay with one double casement window that projects over the pavement, supported by a deep coved and moulded corbel, and topped with a hipped old tile roof. The Close Hall is elevated with two crow steps leading up to the gabled Gate.

To the right of the gate, the east front of No 15, primarily of 16th-century origin, is built on the Close Wall, made of part random ashlar, and features a long old tile roof with a central gable. It includes one hipped leaded dormer casement, a small 18th-century attic window in the gable, six irregular windows (two central in the gable) on the first floor, and a projecting angular oriel window on an ogee base with a hipped roof at the right-hand corner. There are also two small stone mullioned casements on the ground floor under the gable.

Nos 14, 14A, St Anne's Gate, and No 15 together create a very picturesque group.