Cedars Cottage And Former Stables And Coach House And Allied Buildings Around

Cedars Cottage and Former Stables, Coach House and Allied Buildings, Wells

This is a coachman's house, stables, coach house and associated ancillary buildings that originally served The Cedars (a separate listed building), now part of Wells Cathedral School. Built in the mid to late 18th century, after 1756, the complex is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with Doulting ashlar dressings, Welsh slate roofs between coped gables, and stone chimney stacks.

The buildings are arranged on two storeys around a courtyard in a near-symmetrical layout. The principal range faces east, with Cedars Cottage and another building on the north side, similar buildings on the south side (one now serving as the Bursar's office), and a gateway marking the western entrance. The courtyard is paved with lias setts.

The east range comprises eight bays. The two centre bays project forward and carry a pedimented gable. The lower storeys feature cruciform leaded casement windows with segmental arches to bays 1, 2, 7 and 8, with smaller segmental-arched doorways (now converted to windows) in bays 3 and 6, and larger doorways to bays 5 and 6, all with plain stone architraves. The first floor has 2-light leaded casement windows to bays 1, 3, 6 and 8, not aligned with those below, and a circular window between bays 4 and 5. Between bays 4 and 5 stands a pump with stone trough. A clock is mounted in the pediment. The roof is topped by a central tower with a pyramidal lead roof and weathervane.

To the west are two matching five-bay buildings. The northern building is linked to the east block by a tall stone wall that forms part of the courtyard enclosure. Each of these buildings has a plinth, central doorways with segmental-arched stone architraves (now fitted with 20th-century doors), and lower windows consisting of cruciform casements. The first floor has 2-light casements, all rectangular-leaded and set beneath segmental arches. Both buildings have matching doorways in their east gables. The north building includes a 20th-century fire escape from the first floor.

On the north side, beyond the linking wall, sits Cedars Cottage, comprising 2 plus 2 bays. The eastern bays are of shorter span and set back, apparently originally single-storey before being heightened in the early 19th century. The cottage has cruciform leaded casement windows with segmental arches to the lower windows and a 20th-century door between the eastern bays, with a brick and slate porch. A single-storey wing extends to the south side, where the Bursar's office mirrors the cottage's design but in reverse, with cruciform casements to the first floor. The eastern bay of the Bursar's office features a 2-light leaded casement window in a former doorway, while the second bay has a segmental-arched doorway with a boarded door on a heavy frame and a small single-light window. The two western bays have early 20th-century garage doors.

The western gateway is marked by tall ashlar gate piers with plinths and moulded pyramidal caps. Concave quarter-circle sweeps of three-metre-tall random stone walling with pitched ashlar copings flank the entrance. The wall is pierced on the north side by two gateways and continues approximately one metre northwards and about twenty metres southwards, terminating with a small boarded door in a plain opening. These walls contribute significantly to the setting of the buildings and the wider streetscape.

The interior has not been inspected for listing purposes.

The site was transferred from the ownership of the Vicars Choral to the owner of The Cedars in 1756.