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BOUNDARY WALLS TO NUMBERS 1-13

BOUNDARY WALLS TO NUMBERS 1-13, VICARS' CLOSE

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1383198
Date first listed:: 12-Nov-1953
List Entry Name:: BOUNDARY WALLS TO NUMBERS 1-13
Statutory Address:: BOUNDARY WALLS TO NUMBERS 1-13, VICARS' CLOSE

User submitted image — Uploaded by David Lovell This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
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Date:: 2007-08-01
Reference:: IOE01/16712/10
Rights:: © Mr John H. Sparkes. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1383198
Date first listed:: 12-Nov-1953
Date of most recent amendment:: 30-May-2000
List Entry Name:: BOUNDARY WALLS TO NUMBERS 1-13
Statutory Address 1:: BOUNDARY WALLS TO NUMBERS 1-13, VICARS' CLOSE

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: BOUNDARY WALLS TO NUMBERS 1-13, VICARS' CLOSE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Somerset (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Wells
National Grid Reference:: ST 55137 46009

Details

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

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 483616
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Colchester, LS , Wells Cathedral: A History, (1982), 212-225
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, (1958), 319

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.