Swan Hotel And Attached Outbuildings

Swan Hotel and attached outbuildings, Sadler Street, Wells

A hotel dating from the 16th century or earlier, substantially restructured and refronted in the late 18th or early 19th century, with a rear wing rebuilt in 1885. The building is constructed of roughcast with a rendered plinth, brick stacks, and a brick rear wing, covered by slate roofs.

The original plan featured a through carriageway at the centre leading to a stable yard, with a wing to the right. The carriageway is now enclosed, with a new wide entry to the left of the main range beneath a 2-bay extension. Earlier buildings survive to the rear left, connected at the upper level with the main range. The principal staircase is positioned to the left of the entrance hall, behind the main front lounge.

The exterior comprises three storeys. The left section has two bays over the former throughway, marked by a flat-arched full-width opening with a shallow signboard above. The first-floor windows are 12-pane sashes in plain openings, with small curved balcony fronts in delicate early 19th-century cast iron; the second floor has 9-pane sash windows. The main three-bay section features composite three-unit sash windows without glazing bars, those to the ground and first floors being relatively deep. The first-floor bays to either side have small cast-iron balconies, and the second-floor windows are topped by a plain rendered architrave. A pair of half-glazed doors in plain painted stone architrave occupies the centre bay at ground floor, surmounted by a large square balcony in cast iron with a wide planked deck supported on four cast-iron brackets.

The words "Swan Hotel" are displayed in large wooden letters secured on battens between the first and second floors. Between the two left-hand bays at first-floor level is a carved wooden swan mounted on an ornamental cast-iron bracket. Above the second-floor windows runs a plain stone band, below the blocking course with moulded stone parapet. The main roof has coped verges and a stack to each gable.

The rear wing, dated 1885, features an upper floor in cavity-wall brickwork panels set between timber posts that oversail the ground floor in a jetty, supported on heavy square beams, with sash windows.

Internally, the ground-floor room to the left contains an abbreviated nine-compartment ceiling with 16th-century moulded beams. A wide 16th-century stone fireplace was brought into the building from Frome in the late 20th century. The bar to the right retains three early 16th-century moulded beams with exposed early close-set heavy floor joists carrying wide floorboards running in the same direction, and a late 19th-century stone fireplace, which was imported around 1970, as was the fine linen-fold panelling from Devon in the long dining room beyond. The through entrance hall has a coved ceiling dating from around 1970. To the left of the hall is a wide late 18th-century dog-leg hardwood staircase with solid strings and turned-on-square balusters to Doric newels. Details in the upper floors are generally of 19th or 20th-century date; one bedroom retains two deep chamfered beams of 16th or 17th-century origin.

The first-floor front room extends the full width of the three bays of the principal range but retains no detail of historic interest.

Extensive cellars exist beneath the building. The front section to the left contains a very heavy chamfered and stopped beam, while to the right, extending under the rear wing, are stone flat segmental vaults with cobble or stone flag floors. The roofs were not accessible for inspection but are likely late rebuildings.

The attached outbuildings to the rear left include the remains of a 17th-century cottage constructed of rubble and tile.