Plumptre With Front Boundary Wall

This is a canonical house, likely built in 1737 for Dr Francis White, and later altered in the early 19th century. It is now part of Wells Cathedral School. The house is rendered with ashlar dressings and has a Welsh slate roof with coped gables and ashlar chimney stacks.

The building follows a symmetrical double-depth plan with a central hall leading to the staircase at the rear. The exterior is two storeys with attics and five bays. It features a plinth, rusticated quoins, and an eaves cornice with a secret gutter. It has twelve-pane sash windows in moulded architraves, with flat hoods over the ground-floor windows. The entrance is in the middle bay, and consists of a flat-roofed open stone porch with paired neo-classical pilasters supporting an entablature with a cornice, accessed by two steps. A six-panelled door sits within a simple architrave. Hipped dormers with nine-pane sashes are visible in the roof. The rear elevation has a large, 30-pane arched sash window with thick early glazing bars at the centre.

Inside, a spectacular open-well staircase features a balustrade with three balusters to each tread, the central one twisted, scrolled carved tread-ends, and painted dado panelling. The arched window on the staircase landing has panelled reveals. A room on the left-hand side of the ground floor contains a niche with an elliptical head and a multi-faceted cornice. The room to the right has tall fielded panels above a dado and a wide elliptical arched opening with a keystone. A back room has one Gothick window, and the kitchen retains a large, fitted painted dresser. The upper floors have not been inspected.

A stone boundary wall, constructed of random rubble with ashlar pitched copings averaging approximately 1.1 metres high, extends from the southwest corner of the house along the front boundary. A gateway is situated opposite the front entrance, featuring plain square pilasters; this contributes to the setting of the house and the important streetscape.

The site has a history dating back to the 15th century, with references to tenancies and a new house around 1470. In 1737, the Dean and Chapter considered a design for a new or repaired canonical house for Dr. White, and the detail of the current fabric suggests this plan was likely implemented. After a brief period as the residence of Dean Edward from 1963, the house was leased to the Cathedral School in 1966.