Sexey'S Hospital West Wing, With Chapel

This is a late 17th-century almshouse with a chapel, built around 1638. It is located in Bruton, Somerset. The building is constructed from local stone with Doulting stone dressings and has stone slate roofs behind parapets. It is laid out in a 'J' shape, with a two-story design and an undercroft on its south side. The front elevation facing the street has eight bays. Key features include a plinth, eaves string, a plain parapet and mostly paired, cusped-headed windows protected by a continuous stepped label and a string course above. A plain, cambered arched doorway is positioned in the fourth bay. A lead rainwater stackhead is located at the western end.

The inner courtyard has matching elevations, with a door and a two-light window to each living unit. An oak access stair and gallery, constructed in 1882 and designed in a 17th-century style, provides access to the upper floors. The south side of the courtyard has stepped three-light windows; bay one houses the chapel window, with smaller similar windows set into the gable ends of bays two and three. Cambered arched doorways are situated to the right of each bay. A three-centre arched recess above the doorway between bays two and three contains a decorated bust of the founder, Hugh Sexey, set under a moulded canopy adorned with a cartouche of his arms and a plaque. The bust is signed “Wm Stanton, London, fecit.” A 16th-century style window is present in the gable end of the chapel.

The south garden front, two stories with an attic, has four bays. The ground floor features paired, cusped two-light windows with shared labels, while the first floor and attic gables have stepped three-light windows. A large, 15th-century traceried pointed arch window is located in the upper bay of the chapel.

The interiors of the living units have likely been modified over time, however, the chapel remains largely unchanged, featuring a plain timber coving to the plaster barrel vault ceiling, 17th-century panelling, stall-type pews, a matching pulpit with a tester, a lower reading desk, and a small altar table. Situated next to the chapel is a visitor's entrance with wide oak plank floors, 17th-century board and panel doors, and a fine timber screen with Ionic columns leading into a visitors' room. This room is plain, but has a wide, cambered arched fireplace. Good stairs lead to the Master's flat above, which contains several 17th-century doors, a small cambered arched fireplace, and exposed collar trusses of the roof frame. The site of a previous almshouse was recorded in 1292. Hugh Sexey, a landowner in Bruton, died in 1619, and his trustees rebuilt some former charity houses on the opposite side of the road, funded by Sexey during his lifetime, in or around 1638.