Boundary Walls To Numbers 14-27

The boundary walls enclosing the gardens of the houses numbered 14 to 27 in Vicars' Close date from the mid-15th century, with some modifications made in the 19th century. They were restored between 1976 and 1983. Constructed from local roughly squared stone rubble, the walls feature Doulting ashlar dressings. The front boundary walls are, on average, 4 meters from the front of the houses and include returns along the side boundaries. There are openings opposite the doorways to the houses, with an average height of 1 meter, and they are topped with roll-top and pitched face copings.

At the north end, there is a return link that extends eastward to the Vicars Chapel. Notable variations among the walls include: No. 15, which has ashlar piers with moulded pyramidal caps at its gateway; No. 16, which features low ashlar walls topped with wrought-iron railings that have simple collared points and urn finials on cast bracketed standards, along with matching gates and piers; No. 17, which has plain stone coping; No. 22, which has a higher boundary wall and what may be an original gateway with a 4-centred gate arch topped with a mock crenellated design and a timber boarded gate; and No. 27, which has a sweeping approach to a similar stone gateway that adjoins part of the Vicars Hall.

These walls disrupt the original quadrangular layout of Vicars' Close, built in response to the Vicars' requests for gardens. They enclose an approximately 140-meter-long street that narrows and rises slightly towards the north end, which is entirely paved with setts. It is likely that each house originally had a raised gateway when the walls were first constructed.