The Dean'S Lodging

WELLS

ST5446 THE LIBERTY 662-1/6/313 (East side) 12/11/53 No.25 The Dean's Lodging

GV II*

Large detached house. On the site of earlier buildings, but rebuilt by Dr Edward Powell as a "new Canonical house", and completed by 1610; C18 modification and some refenestration, extensive restoration and modernisation in 1970. Local random rubble stone with ashlar dressings, Welsh slate roof with sawn stone ridge between coped gables, stone chimney stacks. PLAN: a near symmetrical single-depth plan with central full height porch, return cross-gabled wing to the right, and a second rear wing, enclosing a small courtyard; the main staircase lies to the rear of the main entrance hall. The original had an L-plan, with a hall and spiral stairway to the chamber. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with attics, 5 bays, with attic gables to end bays and projecting gabled porch. Plinth, bay 3 only has string between floors. Ground floor has ovolo-mould mullioned windows with labels, 4-light to outer bays and 3-light bays 2 and 4, first floor has 12-pane replacement sash windows with stone lintels Attic windows to bays 1, 3 and 5 are 3-light ovolo-mullioned with labels. The porch all ashlar at ground-floor level, with moulded 4-centre outer and inner arches, with circular motifs to spandrels of inner arch, C19 inner door. Relieving arches to all ground-floor openings, and to bays 1, 3 and 5 of first floor. The right return is 2-gabled, with 2, 3 and 4-light stone-mullioned casements, as is the rear gable to this wing, with 4 levels of casements, some with ovolo and some with chamfer mullions. INTERIOR: many of the rooms are simply detailed. The ground floor has one front room fully panelled with C18 ovolo-mould fielded panels, and with a small stone 4-centred fireplace with stopped mouldings, and a large elliptical recess. Some floors are in stone or brick. At the foot of the staircase are 2 wide and flat elliptical stone arches. The open- well stair with quarter landings has a stick balustrade, and an area of C17 panelling; a second staircase, to the rear, has oak treads and a simple stick balustrade. The roofs are in heavy scantlings, with plain collars; 2 of the trusses have panel and muntin screens below the collars, possibly adapted from the earlier building on the site. A straight-headed 3-light C15 window, perhaps from the demolished Stillington Chapel, and a stone spiral staircase also remain. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 327; Town and Country Planning Working Papers: Scrase A J: Wells: A Study of Town Origins: Bristol: 1982-: 32; Bailey S: Canonical Houses of Wells: Gloucester: 1982-: 83).

Listing NGR: ST5522446042