Fountain Inn

The Fountain Inn is an inn located at the end of a short row on St Thomas Street in Wells. It features some work from the 17th century, but underwent significant rebuilding in the late 18th century or early 19th century, and again after a fire in the mid-20th century. The building is constructed from rendered and colorwashed rubble, with a flat roof behind a parapet and a brick chimney stack.

The inn has three storeys and three bays. It includes a plinth, a string course beneath the first-floor window sills, a heavy cornice, and a plain parapet with moulded coping. The ground floor has plain casement windows set in simple segmental-arched openings, each with three toplights. To the left of the first bay, there is a wider arch containing a six-panel door with a fanlight. In the centre bay, there is a pair of three-panel doors in a segmental-arched opening. The first and second floors feature sash windows in plain openings, with 12 panes on the first floor and 9 panes on the second, each fitted with mid-20th century louvred shutters. The gable end of the rear wing has a former 12-pane sash window modified to six panes, with mid-20th century fenestration elsewhere. A painted signboard is located between the first and second floors, and there is a hanging sign with a wrought-iron bracket at first floor level.

Inside, the front range retains little of special interest, with the first-floor room spanning the full width of the frontage. The rear wing is raised on three steps and is separated from the front by a transverse timber staircase featuring carpenter's turned balusters and a twisted newel post, all painted. The low-ceilinged rear room has two late 17th century chamfered and stopped beams supported by very thick outer walls. Near the rear of the room, there is a beam made from a reused member that was formerly the top rail of a framed partition, featuring a double ovolo-mould on one edge but turned flat, with the tenons set horizontally. The inn is strategically situated at the junction of old roads leading from Bath and Shepton Mallet.