Brown'S Gatehouse

WELLS

ST5445 SADLER STREET 662-1/7/237 (East side) 12/11/53 Brown's Gatehouse

GV I

Gateway to churchyard, 1451, by Bishop Beckynton as part of his "New Works". Local stone rubble with Doulting stone dressings, Welsh slate roof with coped gables behind parapets, stone chimney stack to south gable. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, single bay, with abutment on north side. Ground floor has wide 4-centred arch without side columns or capitals, having carved tablet decoration on west face, above is a central 3-light mullioned window, now blocked, with square recessed panels on either side, and on extreme right a statue niche with semicircular arched head, the base corbelled and linked to ground floor by an attached shaft, string course under parapet, parts of which are now missing, and indication of former corner pinnacles. East elevation to Cathedral Green simpler, with battlemented parapet, first floor has central 3-light chamfer-mullioned window with square label. North elevation has a plain gable, the smaller abutment is about two-thirds the tower height, in bands of Doulting ashlar and local stone, apparently with a flat roof, on west face to Saddler Street a 4-centre pedestrian archway with almost square panel over, with 2 putlog holes to left, and a small cusped- arched window immediately under the parapet string course. North elevation of abutment plain, and only about 2m wide. Soffit of archway has an 8-panel vault with hollow-chamfered ribs and foliated boss. The north wall of the undercroft has a central shaft, and 2 openings into the pedestrian way. The pedestrian passage has a rough pointed barrel vault, with an access doorway, presumably to a staircase in the abutment. INTERIOR: not inspected. HISTORICAL NOTE: the gatehouse takes its name from one Richard Brown, the 1553 tenant of No.20 adjoining (qv); in C19 it was sometimes referred to as "The Dean's Eye"; with the three buildings attached to the south, it cost 200 marks to build. Scheduled Ancient Monument Somerset No.233.

Listing NGR: ST5494345853