Polydor House

Polydor House is a large detached house on The Liberty in Wells, formerly known as The Organist's House. It is built of random rubble with Doulting stone dressings, partly rendered and colourwashed, with Welsh slate gabled roofs, most gables coped, and ashlar chimney stacks.

The building incorporates 15th-century fragments with significant 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th-century additions and alterations. It originated as a 15th-century hall house but has been substantially modified over time. The plan now comprises a large staircase hall with parlour to the right, a three-bay full-height 17th-century extension to the left, and to the rear of the main range a wide parallel addition of 17th-century or earlier date.

The exterior is arranged as two storeys with partial attic and cellar. The left section, unrendered, is two bays wide and features a three-light ovolo-moulded timber-framed window to the lower bay and casement windows to the lower second bay. The first floor has 12-pane and 9-pane sashes in moulded stone architraves, while the attic contains a three-light chamfer-mullioned casement in a chamfered surround without label, set in a lofty coped gable.

The principal front is rendered and colourwashed, five bays wide and slightly higher. Part-height buttresses with offsets flank bays one and two to the right. The remaining bays are set back slightly. Lower bays four and five and all five first-floor windows are 12-pane sashes in plain openings. Lower bay one has a four-light chamfer-mullioned and transomed window with a square label. Bay three has a blocked two-light mullioned window. The entrance in bay two features a six-panel door in a heavy beaded architrave with a fine shell hood over the frieze and ornamental brackets.

The rear elevation contains a number of timber windows, including one 16th-century window with hollow-chamfered mouldings and label, and traces of a trefoil-headed window with incised spandrels.

Internally, the main door opens directly into the large entrance hall, which incorporates the former service rooms to the left. To the right of the doorway is an open-well early 18th-century stair, probably from the 1719 alterations. It features quarter landings, three turned balusters to each tread with scrolled ends to the open string, fluted newels, and a swept handrail. The ceiling has a cable-mould cornice. In the rear wall is a lofty two-light stone casement with transom and cusped lights, part of the earliest fabric.

The parlour to the right has a four-compartment ceiling with beams bearing later added plaster mouldings. A four-centred stone doorway provides access to the basement.

The left section, from the 16th-century extension, contains a spiral staircase in the north-west corner. This section is reported to have an arch-braced collar roof with three purlins and chamfered wind-bracing, with a pair of carved corbels bearing angels holding shields.

The rear range includes a spiral stair rising through the full height and a two-light early leaded wood casement in a very thick wall. This range contains a ground-floor room with 17th-century panelling and a heavy cornice to a plastered ceiling with fielded panels. The fire surround has an eared architrave.

The house derives its name from Polydore Vergil, a 16th-century Humanist Dean, though he is not known to have lived here. The site was first recorded as being occupied in 1317. In 1719, the new occupant Dr Hunt was given permission to make alterations to repair the house, a date appropriate to the main staircase. By 1866, when the Organist's original house had become ruinous, he took over this property, thereafter known as the Organist's House until 1966, when it was leased to the Cathedral School.