Boundary Walls To Numbers 1-13

WELLS

ST5445 VICARS' CLOSE 662-1/7/333 (East side) 12/11/53 Boundary walls to Nos 1-13 (Consecutive) (Formerly Listed as: VICAR'S CLOSE Nos.1-13 AND 14-27 (Consecutive))

GV I

Walls enclosing gardens of row of houses. Mid C15, with some C19 modifications, restored 1976-83. Local roughly squared stone rubble with Doulting ashlar dressings. Front boundary walls on average 4m from front of house, with returns along side boundaries and with openings opposite doorways to houses, average 1m high, with roll and pitched face copings. At the south end there is a quarter- circle curve into the Vicars Hall (qv); variations are: No.4 has lower walls surmounted by railings having arrowhead tops with urn finials to standards, and matching gate. No.5 has what may be an original gateway, where the wall is swept up in the centre to a 4-centred arched gateway having mock-crenellated top, framing a timber gate with wrought-iron hinges: on the rear, over the arch, a carved raised text in Gothic letters, quoting from Psalm. No.7 has gateways at the extreme ends with ashlar piers having moulded pyramidal caps, and No.12 has similar piers to the gateway. To No.13 the front wall is about 1.8m high, with two stone arches as No.5, the left framing stone steps alongside the Vicars Chapel (qv) and the right is the house gateway, with timber gate. These walls break up the original quadrangular form of Vicars' Close, having been erected in response to demands from the Vicars for gardens. They enclose the approx 140m long street, which narrows and rises slightly towards the N, and is completely paved with setts. Probably each house had a raised gateway when the walls were first constructed. (Colchester LS: Wells Cathedral: A History: Shepton Mallet: 1982-: 212-225; Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 319).

Listing NGR: ST5514345994