Gatehouse And South Boundary Wall To The Old Deanery

ST5545 662-1/7/40 12/11/53

WELLS

CATHEDRAL GREEN (North side) Gatehouse and south boundary wall to the Old Deanery (Formerly Listed as: CATHEDRAL GREEN (North side) The Old Deanery)

GV I

Gatehouse and boundary walling. C15 much restored. Gatehouse has ashlar ground floor and dressings, with coursed rubble above, gabled Welsh slate roof behind battlemented parapets. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 2 bays. Lower bay 1 has a moulded 4-centred wagon arch with a pair of wooden doors which may be at least partly medieval; bay 2 a matching pedestrian arch, above are chamfer-mullioned and transomed 2-light windows with cinquefoil cusping and square labels, between bays a corbelled chimney stack, cropped at the lower edge of the parapet. The inner elevation has a wider segmental arch embracing both bays, above which, towards the east end, is a 2-light window without transom, small stair turret to north-west corner. The soffit over the archway has 2 heavy chamfered beams and plastered panels. In the wall to the right at ground floor is a small rectangular light, and a 3-plank door with stopped moulded frame in a 4-centred flush opening. INTERIOR: the ground floor has a bedroom, part of a former stable, with wide braced plank and batten door under a 16-pane transom-light, and a 3-light stone casement with C17 ovolo-mould mullions and early leaded glazing. The entrance has a fine overlapping 3-plank door, and under the staircase is a 4-panel C17 door, with raised fielded panels on the reverse; over the stair is a deep beam with lamb's-tongue stop. The first floor single room has in the S wall a stone fire surround with chamfered square opening; above this is a floating mantelshelf with a brattished cornice, carried on 3 conical brackets, possibly statue bases. In the SW corner is an entrance to a former privy, with hinge-pin, and from the NW corner is a stone spiral staircase with stone pinnacle. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: extending to the E is a high random rubble wall with ashlar crenellated coping, with a 4-centred moulded arched doorway giving to the Wells Museum (qv), at the eastern end, and finishing to a straight joint. A double wall extends westwards for about 12m to the Old Deanery (qv), and beyond this a further 20m of high wall to match, with gateway (possibly C20) into the former herb garden of William Turner (1508-1568); this also finishes to a straight joint.

Listing NGR: ST5503345919