Bishop Burnell'S Great Hall

WELLS

ST5445 BISHOP'S PALACE 662-1/7/6 Bishop Burnell's Great Hall 12/11/53 (Formerly Listed as: BISHOP'S PALACE (including... ruins of Great Hall...))

GV I

Ruins of former mediaeval bishop's hall house. c1280, part demolished c1830. Local rubble with Doulting stone dressings, no roof. Remains of large 5-bay aisled hall, approx 35m long and 18m wide internally, with screens passage and N porch; solar and undercroft to right (W). What now remains is the N wall, W wall, remnants of the arcade column bases, and a detached turret to the SE corner of the E wall. The N wall has 4 lofty 2-light geometrical Decorated windows, with sexfoil head over cusped lights, and cusped transom; to the right the inner doorway to the former N porch, and at either end are remains of octagonal stair turrets. At the W end, with 2 octagonal turrets, later single-storey C19 service buildings have been added, with a narrow central courtyard; there was already some low-level extension here in 1730 and before. On the S side is a length of low wall extending towards the E, including a pointed doorway with mouldings. Originally this was a most impressive large hall residence. It is believed to have been built after the commencement of the Chapel (qv), and appears in Buck's view of 1730 apparently still complete, with a deep 2-storey N porch, 3 of the windows (that to the E seems blocked by a solid wall), and 4 roof gables or dormers; the S and E walls were finally demolished in the early C19 by Bishop Law "... to make a more picturesque ruin...", and, in Pevsner's words, with the remainder of the Palace complex, "...is the product of the gentle romanticism of the C18 and early C19." (Colchester LS: Wells Cathedral: A History: Shepton Mallet: 1982-: 232; Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 315).

Listing NGR: ST5516845702