City Arms Inn

The City Arms Inn, located on the High Street in Wells, dates to the 16th century, with significant alterations in later periods. It is constructed of local stone rubble, which has been colourwashed, and has clay pantiled roofs with brick and stone chimney stacks. The building follows a U-plan, encompassing a courtyard accessible from the High Street and a flank facing Queen Street.

The east unit presents a single-bay end wall to the street, featuring a vertically boarded door set within a partially blocked cart opening and a three-light horizontal bar casement window above. The return side, overlooking the courtyard, has varied window arrangements: a metal casement window, pane sash windows, a pair of part-glazed doors, and 17th-century timber-frame windows with ovolo-mould mullions – some of these are adopted features.

The south wing, at the courtyard's end, has an open timber staircase leading to a doorway and upper bay. Upper bays two and three have contemporary timber casement windows, while lower bays incorporate windows designed to resemble earlier “borrowed light” windows, a style preserved at number 6 High Street, featuring turned balusters.

The courtyard elevation of the west wing is dominated by a lean-to verandah with a clay pantiled roof and balustrades of a 20th-century construction. Fenestration is random; bays one, three, and four have timber-framed upper windows, with bay two blocked and bay five blank. Below, bays one and two have “borrowed light” windows, a matching set of French doors is in bay three, and bay four features a chamfered stone surround to a single-light window with iron grilles, above a blocked segmental archway. Bay five has modern casements with iron bars flanking a chamfered segmental arched doorway which may contain an early door.

The end elevation facing High Street is plain, but a 16-pane sash window is visible at first floor where the building curves into Queen Street. The Queen Street elevation consists of three bays—an upper bay one has a 16-pane sash, bay two a signboard above a 20th-century casement, and an upper bay three a 12-pane casement, with an old 3-light frame below which may derive from an ovolo-mould pattern.

Internally, the east wing suffered fire damage, and minimal original fabric remains. The south wing is largely modern. The ground floor of the west wing was reconstructed around 1987, but an upper room retains an open ceiling revealing a collar truss roof frame; the collars have been sawn off and reset at a higher level and misleading timberwork has been applied. The premises were previously used as a common gaol until approximately 1800. The stone setts within the courtyard are significant to the setting of the building.