Wells Museum

Wells Museum, originally a Chancellors' House, occupies a prominent position on Cathedral Green in Wells. The building's origins lie in the 15th century, although it was significantly altered and extended in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, with substantial work undertaken around 1828. The facade is rendered with stone dressings, topped by Welsh slate roofs with shaped stone ridges between coped gables, and rendered and stone chimney stacks.

The building follows a U-plan, likely beginning as a hall house with service and parlour wings. It now features a two-storey centre with a broad entrance hall and a generous lateral staircase, with the wings themselves substantially remodelled or rebuilt.

The south facade has three bays between projecting wings, with a porch located in the southwest corner. The west gable features a large, angled bay window on the ground floor, which has a stepped lead hip roof and a lancet-panelled frieze containing eight-pane sash windows with four-centred arched heads. A small single-light window is situated above. The east gable is similar, with a single matching eight-pane sash window under a label. The central bays feature pairs of twelve-pane sash windows set in plain architraves; the first floor holds Venetian windows with eight, twelve, and eight panes, with radial glazing to the central units. To the left of bay one is a single-storey porch with a matching gable and a four-centred arched doorway, with a pair of early 19th-century doors and a small single-light window above.

A four-light chamfer-mullioned window with early glazing at low level is visible on the west flank of the east projecting wing, with a similar, blocked window nearby.

Inside, the low-ceilinged entrance hall leads to a staircase hall featuring an early 19th-century lateral staircase with a stick balustrade and a swept mahogany handrail, also with scrolled ends on the open treads. A fine Palladian window with linings is on the rear wall, complemented by a coved cornice.

The first-floor suite on the left side of the building contains a grand salon, completed in Gothic Revival style with slightly bowed ends, panelled doors, linings, a coved cornice with an inset continuous frieze of formalised leaves, and a marble fireplace on the west wall. The ante-room is similarly detailed, with a large twelve-pane sash window and side-lights on the west wall, featuring intersecting Y-bars and some tinted glass, with original shutters. The rear of the building reveals sections of deeply-chamfered beams, alongside 17th-century roof trusses utilizing earlier timber.