1, High Street is a Grade II listed building in the Somerset local planning authority area, England. First listed on 12 November 1953. A C15 House/shop.

1, High Street

WRENN ID
quiet-slate-brook
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Somerset
Constituency
Wells and Mendip Hills MP: Tessa Munt (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
12 November 1953
Type
House/shop
Address
1, High Street, Wells
OS grid reference
ST 549 457
Coordinates
51.20913, -2.64568
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

This is a double-depth house, likely dating back to the 15th or early 16th century, that has undergone remodeling in the 17th and 18th centuries, with a significant facelift in the 19th century. It is now a shop with hotel accommodation above, situated on the High Street. The exterior is rendered and colourwashed, featuring a gabled clay pantiled double roof with ridges running at right angles to the road, and a brick chimney stack.

The building has three storeys and two bays. The shop front incorporates mid-19th century elements, including a five-light display window with a curved plan at the left end and doors to the right, topped by a slim fascia and deep timber cornice. A through passage is located to the left of the shop front, alongside a timber post with a worn, double wave mould and a chamfered stop at its base. Above the shop front, angled bay windows extend over both upper floors, each unit containing sash windows with 2, 4, 4, and 2 panes, and protected by hipped, slated lean-to roofs.

Inside, the ground floor has been altered in the 20th century but retains a roughly squared front bressumer and a single 17th-century chamfered transverse beam. A small section of a former jetty bracket remains at the junction with the adjacent building. On the first floor, an open lounge area connects to the rear with a stone fireplace featuring a moulded four-centred lintel. A section of wattle-and-daub walling is preserved behind glazing. One of the front rooms contains a fine 16th-century fireplace with a four-centred lintel, leaf spandrels, and a raised carved band above. The adjoining room showcases painted 17th-century panelling beneath the bay window, and an ovolo-mould beam with stops is positioned above the window. The west flank wall is largely timber-framed and partially exposed. A staircase formerly led down to ground floor level.

The staircase to the second floor is a winding staircase, rising to a central newel. The top floor includes a small stone fireplace with a four-centred head, possibly dating to the early 16th century, and two small 17th-century plank doors. The roof structure incorporates chamfered wind-braces and two purlins.

A brass plaque is set within one pilaster of the shop front, commemorating the gift of water from the Bishop's Palace wells for cleansing the town and fighting fires in 1803.

Local climate

1, High Street receives an average of 860 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 62% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 70% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 52% of listed buildings. Of these, 14 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • No EPC on record for this property
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  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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Nearby listed buildings

  1. 3, High Street Grade II 6 m
  2. The Red Lion Hotel Grade II 9 m
  3. 5, High Street Grade II 12 m
  4. The Market Cross Grade II* 17 m
  5. The Crown Hotel Grade II* 19 m
  6. National Westminster Bank Grade II 20 m
  7. Crown Hotel Grade II 27 m
  8. 9, High Street Grade II 31 m
  9. 10, Market Place Grade II 33 m
  10. 4, High Street Grade II 33 m