14-27, VICARS' CLOSE

This terrace comprises 14 houses, originally 23 separate dwellings. They were built from around 1360 for Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury. The chimney shafts were renewed in the 15th century, probably for Bishop Bekynton, and various rear extensions were added in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Considerable refenestration occurred in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Major restoration took place from 1976 to 1983, recorded on a plaque on the boundary wall to the east side, near the south end.

The terrace is built of rough squared local rubble with Doulting ashlar dressings and chimney shafts. The front roof slopes are slate, with pantile generally to the rear, though Numbers 27 and 28 have scalloped tiles on the front slopes.

Original Plan and Alterations

Each house originally had a ground floor hall approximately 6 by 4 metres, with a projecting winder stair to the rear left leading to an upper hall of the same size. Both floors had a fireplace in the front wall. Each property had a rear door through a squinch opening to a small enclosed yard, and possibly a latrine under the staircase.

All have been subject to extension and alteration from the mid-15th century, when some of the 14th-century units were knocked together to make single dwellings. Few plans remain unchanged, and there have been various combinations and extensions. Number 14 has a return wing facing south down the Close, attached to the Vicars' Chapel. Number 16 was almost entirely rebuilt in the 18th century.

Exterior

The terrace is of two storeys with some attics, variously 2 to 6 bays. Many houses have 12-pane sashes, but Number 18 has canted sash bays through two storeys, and Numbers 22, 26, 27 and 28 have restored stone mullioned casements. Doors are generally 4 or 6-panel, mostly with transom-lights, but Numbers 22 and 27 have plank doors on straps. Various remains of flush surrounds to former door and window openings survive, and a moulded stone eaves course is interrupted by the external stacks.

There are 21 stacks in all, with square lower sections carrying octagonal shafts with an open fretted capping (though the two stacks to Number 16 are without cappings). Each stack has two square stone panels with heraldic shields.

Individual House Interiors

Number 14

This includes a return range to the right, facing south down the Close. A reference from 1790 gives it as the house of 'the Senior Priest Vicar'. The return range is in one bay with a 15th-century 4-light stone-mullioned casement to each floor, separated by a panelled apron with heraldic shields. The lights include Art Nouveau leaded glazing to the cusped heads. In the gable above is a small blocked vent.

The property has a more complex plan than the other houses, with a small yard enclosed on the north side by two wings, gabled to The Liberty, and joined by a wall. There are various windows in these wings including 15th or 16th-century stone casements.

Entrance is to the far left, with a square well staircase between front and rear ranges, and the principal room to the right connects to the south-facing range. The passage has a wide blocked opening, right, to the yard. The upper floor is similar, with the main bedroom connected to the upper room in the return range.

At ground floor the passage wall is exposed rubble. The room to the right has a large but damaged fireplace, the upper pinnacle or ogee broken, above a very flat arch, and flanked by sashes in embrasures. The 6-compartment ceiling has moulded beams. The adjoining space has a square fireplace with moulded surround, interrupted across the lintel, and a 4-compartment ceiling similar to that adjoining.

The kitchen to the rear has a wide 17th-century plank door and two stopped-chamfer beams. The window to the courtyard has a 4-centred head, and eccentric timber fill.

The passage by the staircase has a very wide 4-centred opening to a broad chamfer, and to the right are remains of a spiral stair, and a 2-light casement with chamfered mullion. Under the stair is a wide-plank 17th-century door. The bottom tread of the staircase, in stone, has an incised grid pattern, continued to the nosing.

The staircase, probably 18th century, has turned balusters and solid rail. The first floor main room has two beams, and a cut-down 15th-century fireplace, painted, with triple colonnettes on high bases, but cut back at approximately 1.5 metres to a plain mantel shelf. Low left is a salt cupboard with 4-centred head to a stone surround, and door with butterfly hinges.

From here the opening to the second room has a 4-centred moulded arch with a painted scroll (possibly 'Honi Soit..') with a green dragon to the left, and a headless angel to the right.

The study has a lowered, flat ceiling, a large painted stone moulded eaves course in the west wall (possibly the original outer wall), and a 4-light narrow casement with mortices for stanchions, the chamfered mullions replaced. In the north wall is a small stone fireplace with a very deep flat lintel, and a deep moulded wall beam.

The main room to the rear, through a wide plank 18th-century door, has a chamfered beam, cusped light to the east, and to the north a chamfered rere-arch over a blocked opening.

Above the stair, near the west wall, is a chamfered beam, and there is a splat-balustered vent to a cupboard side. There are various 4 and 6-panel 18th-century doors. The roof is only partly accessible, but one slope has two purlins and one range of chamfered wind-bracing.

Number 15

This has a 5-bay front, combining two original properties. The left-hand ground-floor room is panelled, with tall panels in ovolo-mould above a dado rail, and with dentil cornice. The stair is approached through a round arch. It is reputed to have an early cellar. There is a large 15th-century wing in rubble and roughcast, with hipped pantile roof.

Number 16

This is a wide 5-bay property, incorporating two original properties, but appears to have been almost completely rebuilt in the late 18th century. It is a symmetrical double-depth plan with central dog-leg staircase with stick balusters and open string. Doors have fielded panels. Cellars remain.

Number 17

This has a 6-bay front, incorporating two original properties. It retains a 2-light casement with cusped ogee-headed lights, and an ogee-headed 'piscina', a wide fireplace to crude 4-centred head, and a 2-door 'screens' incorporating a plank door on straps with a blocked central opening.

The central passage is stone flagged, leading to a closed string stick baluster staircase. At first floor the room to the right has a fire surround to 4-centred arch, with mouldings stopped to high octagonal plinths, and the window embrasure has a rere-arch with hollow mould. This floor has some moulded beams. One section of roof is arch-braced, with one purlin, to a brattished plate, and another has arch-braces to a heavy collar, with two chamfered and stopped purlins, plus an upper range of wind-bracing.

A rear wing, left, has a large rubble stack. This is one of the best of the retained interiors.

Number 21

A small single unit, much modified, but retains main roof structure with wind-bracing in the front slope in an attic.

Number 22

This has restored original stone-mullioned window forms. The whole interior was restored around 1990 and has a large single room at each level, with a passage to rear wing, a 20th-century staircase and remnants of an earlier stair.

The ground-floor room with re-set stone paving has a very large chamfered lateral beam, and in the ceiling to the right two bays of 19th-century painted decoration. The fireplace in the front wall has a 4-centred arch, and the rear wall retains the 2-light stone casement.

In the passage to the rear is a shouldered arch to the former newel staircase.

The first floor hall has the original 3-bay roof structure with arch-bracing, one row of wind-bracing to two purlins, and a brattished plate, to both slopes. To the front is a small square fireplace with chamfered surround, and in the rear wall is a single casement with stone transom, to a shouldered rere-arch.

In the passageway is a small light with early rectilinear leading. One roof truss is said to have a painted tympanum, not seen. The recent restoration presents the house in a near-original layout.

Number 24

A small unit with wing, all much modified, but with fragments of several periods. In the entrance lobby is a large rough lateral beam with deep chamfer, continued boxed into the main ground-floor room, which has a deep recess to segmental head, and a mid-20th-century tiled fire surround.

The painted stair has a stick balustrade, turned newel and solid string.

The main first-floor room is entered through a 17th-century two-panel door with mouldings, and there are various 17th and 18th-century doors. The rear wing has steel casements. The roof has been restructured, but has one arch-braced truss.

Number 25

A single unit, with side passage to a winder stair, and a rear wing. The ground floor front, with early 18th-century square panel door on H hinges, has 17th-century painted panelling throughout, including in the wall to the passage side some horizontal 'frieze' panels with scroll decoration. In the north wall is the profile of a large chamfered beam. The fireplace is 19th century.

The rear wall has a splayed recess to the former doorway, and a deep-set 8-pane light with grisaille glazing incorporating some silver-stain work, and to the right is a niche cupboard. At the foot of the stair is a rough stone segmental arch, possibly inserted in the 20th century.

Under the staircase is a 17th-century plank door with mouldings, and another 3-plank door to the kitchen.

The stair has stick balustrade and turned newels, and divides at the upper landing.

First floor has two small front rooms. That to the north has a transverse 16th-century beam and a blocked fireplace, and to the south a similar beam, 6-panel 18th-century door with square middle panels, and 17th-century dado panelling.

The partition at the rear of the bedrooms includes 2-panel doors under transom-lights. The roof is only partly accessible but includes considerable replacement rafters, and has at least one wind-brace.

Number 26

The ground floor left room has a 4-compartment ceiling, and right room has a fireplace with 4-centred arch. First floor left has 19th-century fire surround, and beam with run-out stops.

Historical Significance

This is the west half of a double row of houses enclosing a street, nearly 140 metres long, which slopes down gently from the north, and is narrower at the upper than the lower end. Rodwell has shown that the stacks are part of the original 14th-century layout, and that the roof structure, much of which still remains, was of one date. The continuous eaves-line, interrupted by the projecting stacks, follows the slope of the street, and there is a raised coping to each of the original party walls.

The houses were provided for the Vicars Choral, and many still serve this purpose, although from 1840 until around 1970 the Wells Theological College occupied the properties.

This is an outstanding early planned street, closed at the north end by the Vicars' Chapel and to the south by the Vicars' Hall, in which the overall form of the buildings remains substantially unchanged.