Sexey's Hospital West Wing, With Chapel
SEXEY'S HOSPITAL WEST WING, WITH CHAPEL, HIGH STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1176086
- Date first listed:
- 24-Mar-1961
- List Entry Name:
- Sexey's Hospital West Wing, With Chapel
- Statutory Address:
- SEXEY'S HOSPITAL WEST WING, WITH CHAPEL, HIGH STREET
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2005-05-04
- Reference:
- IOE01/14115/02
- Rights:
- © Mr Graham G. G. Warren. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1176086
- Date first listed:
- 24-Mar-1961
- List Entry Name:
- Sexey's Hospital West Wing, With Chapel
- Statutory Address 1:
- SEXEY'S HOSPITAL WEST WING, WITH CHAPEL, HIGH STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- SEXEY'S HOSPITAL WEST WING, WITH CHAPEL, HIGH STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Somerset (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Bruton
- National Grid Reference:
- ST6810034720
Details
ST6834NW
8/120
BRUTON CP
HIGH STREET (South side)
Sexey's Hospital : West Wing, with Chapel
24.3.61
GV I
Almshouse, with chapel. c1638. Local stone cut and squared with Doulting stone dressings; stone slate roofs behind
parapets, with coped gables; stone chimney stacks with moulded caps. 'J'-plan, 2 storeys with undercroft on South
side; street elevation of 8 bays. Plinth, eaves string, plain parapet; mostly paired cusped headed windows under
continuous stepped label below and string course above; no window lower bay 2, plain cambered arched doorway bay 4;
lead rainwater stackhead at West end. Inner courtyard has matching elevations, with one door and one 2-light window to
each living unit, 3 to each level on North and West sides, the upper units reached by oak access stair and gallery of
1882 in C17 style; the 3-bay South side has stepped 3-light windows, bay 1 being the chapel window, with smaller
similar windows set into gables bays 2 and 3 above; cambered arched doorways to right of each bay, that to bay 2
having flat stone hood on corbel brackets, to bay 3 now blocked by staircase; above doorway between bays 2 and 3 a
3-centre arched recess with architrave in which is set decorated bust of the founder under moulted canopy with
cartoucle of arms and plaque under inscribed "Hugh Sexey, Esq., Founder - of this Hospitall - Auditor to Queene
Elizabeth and King - James", and signed "Wm Stanton, London, fecit". C16 style East chapel window in gable end. South
garden front 2 storeys with attic, 4 bays; paired cusped 2-light windows under shared labels to ground, with stepped
3-light to first floor and attic gables, but with 3-light C15 traceried pointer arch chapel window upper bay 4.
Interiors of living units probably modified, but Chapel completely unchanged, with plain timber coving to plaster
barrel vault ceiling, C17 panelling and stall-type pews, matching pulpit with tester and lower reading desk and very
small altar table. next to chapel the Visitors' entrance, with wide oak plank floors, C17 board and panel doors, and
fine timber screen with Ionic columns, leading into Visitors' room, plain but with wide cambered arched fireplace; good
stairs to Master's flat above, which has several C17 doors, a small cambered arched fireplace, and the exposed collar
trusses of roof frame. First almshouse in Bruton recorded in 1292; Hugh Sexey, a substantial landowner in Bruton died
1619; his trustees decided to rebuild some former charity houses on opposite side of road endowed by Sexey during his
lifetime, in or about 1638. (Couzens P, Bruton in Selwood, Abbey Press, Sherborne, 1972).
Listing NGR: ST6810034720
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 261594
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Couzens, P, Bruton in Selwood, (1972)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 23-Jun-2026 at 08:47:04.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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