1, High Street

WELLS

ST5445 HIGH STREET 662-1/7/77 (South side) 12/11/53 No.1

GV II

House, now shop with continuation of hotel over. C15 or early C16, remodelled C17 and with C18 front. Rendered and colourwashed, gabled clay pantiled double roof, with ridges at right angles to road, brick chimney stack. PLAN: a double-depth range, with, to the left, a throughway to a rear courtyard. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, 2 bays. Shop front has mid C19 elements, with 5-light display window, curved plan at left end, doors to right, with slim fascia and deep timber cornice, to half of left-hand bay a through passage, on right of which abutting shop front is timber post with double wave mould and chamfer stop at base, much worn. Above, angled bay windows to each bay through both levels, with hipped slated lean-to roofs against main gables, of 2+4+4+2 pane sash windows each unit. INTERIOR: the ground floor, occupied separately as part of a shop (see also No.3), has been modified in the C20, but has a large roughly squared front bressumer and one C17 chamfered transverse beam; a small part of a former jetty bracket also remains at the junction between Nos 1 and 3 (qv). At first floor is an open lounge area to the rear, with a stone fireplace with moulded 4-centred lintel, and a section of wattle-and-daub walling protected by glazing; this room continues across over No.3 (qv). One of the front rooms has a fine C16 fireplace with 4-centred lintel, with leaf spandrels and a raised carved band above. The adjoining room has painted C17 panelling under the bay window, and above the window is an ovolo-mould beam with stops. The W flank wall is in heavy timber-framing, partly exposed, and a stair formerly descended to the ground floor level. The stair to the second floor is a wide winder to a central through newel. The top floor includes one small stone fireplace with 4-centred head, possibly early C16, and there are 2 small C17 plank doors. The roof has chamfered wind-braces with 2 purlins. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: set in one pilaster of shop front a brass plaque commemorating the gift of the use of the water form the Bishop's Palace wells for cleansing the town and fighting fires, dated 1803.

Listing NGR: ST5499145746