St Chad's Cathedral School and Chapel

Details

LICHFIELD

SK1109NE THE CLOSE 1094-1/5/215 (North side) 05/02/52 St Chad's Cathedral School and Chapel (Formerly Listed as: THE CLOSE Episcopal Palace and Chapel adjoining)

GV I

Also known as: Episcopal Palace THE CLOSE. Former episcopal palace, now school and attached chapel. 1687-8. By Edward Pierce, one of Wren's masons; wings and chapel of 1869. Ashlar; hipped tile roof with ashlar stacks. U-plan with later wings to front, forming H-plan, with chapel to rear angle. Queen Anne style. 2 storeys with basement and attic; symmetrical 7-window range, 3-window centre breaks forward under pediment with arms and date: 1687. Plain plinth, platt band over ground floor and top modillioned timber cornice; rusticated quoins. Entrance up 10 bowed steps, with iron handrails and C19 lamp, has architrave, frieze and consoled segmental pediment, paired 5-fielded-panel doors, 2 glazed. 2-light windows to basement, others have moulded sills and architraves to pegged cross-casements with iron opening lights and leaded glazing; attic has 4 hipped dormers with 2-light leaded casements. C19 wings have moulded plinths, quoins, cornices and hipped roofs. 2-storey wing to left has front cross-casement and flanking transomed lights, 3 panels over and round-headed dormer with bull's eye, C19 lamp to angle; 5 transomed lights to right return, 2 lateral stacks and entrance to left. Single-storey wing to right has similar details, but Diocletian window above window to front; left return has 3 windows, 2 with cross-casements, one blind, 2 dormers; right return has lateral stack and 2 blind windows, entrance and 2 dormers. Left return has glazed lean-to to ground floor; right return has C19 full-height addition to angle with front wing, 3-window range to right has 9/1-pane sashes to ground floor, two 12/8-pane sashes and one cross-casement to 1st floor. Rear has 2-window wings; entrance with architrave and French window, and flanking 12-pane sashes, 9/1-pane sashes to ground floor of right wing and 6/1-pane sashes to left inner return, other windows have cross-casements, mostly leaded, those to ground floor of left wing are blocked behind glazing; 4 dormers. 4-bay chapel to right angle has coped gables; buttress to right of left end bay marking sanctuary; lancets have flanking Tudor flower motifs and continuous hood; lancet to east return. West end has half-round turret with bell cote and flanking lancets; south elevation has lean-to passage with tiny lancets and pointed entrance with gablet. INTERIOR: hall has fireplace with ex-situ panelled overmantel with arms of Bishop Hackett and date: 1669; open well stair to right has turned balusters, panelled newels and moulded handrail, landing has 3 timber arches; stair to left has slender turned balusters and ball finials to newels; 2-panel doors, one to panelled room to left end has eared architrave, pulvinated frieze and cornice. Room has bolection-moulded panelling with dado rail and corner fireplace, deep entablature; other rooms have mostly C19 detail. Chapel has arch-braced roof with wall shafts marking sanctuary, which has ceiling and window recesses forming sedilia; panelled wainscotting has shafts to brattished cornice, east end has some linenfold and quatrefoils, with C17 relief panels to reredos; wall painting to sanctuary dated 1916, east window has shafts and moulded trefoil head; west gallery over arched timber screen with attached stalls with misericords. Stained glass: windows have C19 panels, some retaining decorative settings. The building is impressive, with many original features and sensitive C19 additions. The palace was the home of the bishop only from the 1860s, before that being the home of Gilbert Walmsley, friend of Garrick and Johnson, and Anna Seward, poet, known as the Swan of Lichfield. The palace became a school in 1954. (Victoria History of the County of Stafford: Greenslade M W: Lichfield: Oxford: 1990-: P.61-2).

Listing NGR: SK1156409854

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

382792

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Stafford, (1990), 61-2

End of official list entry

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