The Bishop's Chapel and the Bishop's Palace
THE BISHOP'S CHAPEL AND THE BISHOP'S PALACE, BISHOP'S PALACE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1382874
- Date first listed:
- 12-Nov-1953
- List Entry Name:
- The Bishop's Chapel and the Bishop's Palace
- Statutory Address:
- THE BISHOP'S CHAPEL AND THE BISHOP'S PALACE, BISHOP'S PALACE
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2007-08-01
- Reference:
- IOE01/16712/04
- Rights:
- © Mr John H. Sparkes. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1382874
- Date first listed:
- 12-Nov-1953
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 31-May-2000
- List Entry Name:
- The Bishop's Chapel and the Bishop's Palace
- Statutory Address 1:
- THE BISHOP'S CHAPEL AND THE BISHOP'S PALACE, BISHOP'S PALACE
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:
- THE BISHOP'S CHAPEL AND THE BISHOP'S PALACE, BISHOP'S PALACE
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 55208 45734
Details
WELLS
ST5445 BISHOP'S PALACE
662-1/7/5 The Bishop's Chapel, The Bishop's
12/11/53 Palace
(Formerly Listed as:
BISHOP'S PALACE
The Bishop's Palace
(including...Chapel...))
GV I
Private chapel in Bishop's Palace. 1275-92 built for Bishop
Burnell. Local stone rubble roughly coursed, Doulting stone
dressings, shallow pitched roof behind parapet.
EXTERIOR: single storey, 3 bays, set at right angles to, and
on the south west corner of, the Bishop's Palace (qv). Plinth,
offsets under main windows, parapet string and crenellated
parapet, corner turrets, those on north side square, but the
south-west corner octagonal on plan. Wide west elevation has
semicircular arched doorway with trefoil inner arch, with
Purbeck stone colonettes over a pair of C19 plank doors with
decorative iron straps. Above is a segmental pointed-arched
window with arched label and 5 cusped lights, in the gable a
sexfoil vent. Stair light in corner turrets, arched doorway in
south-west corner. Arched openings in parapet.
East elevation has a large pointed segmental-headed window
with six lights in groups of 3 with interlaced tracery, and a
central octofoil, all under a moulded drip with stops. Each
side has 3 windows with geometric Decorated tracery.
INTERIOR: a single undivided space with lierne vault, having
naturalistic foliage to bosses, on triple shafts to C19 carved
corbel heads, and with paired shafts to window reveals. Stone
floor. The rere-arch to the W door is cusped. Reredos in 5
bays with blank 2-light openings with quatrefoils, below the
main sill. Sedilia and piscina, restored by Buckler, 1834,
with Purbeck shafts and cusped arches. Windows with mainly C19
grisaille, but some medieval glass fragments to tracery
lights. Fittings are C20: the W returns to the stalls have a
coved cresting carried on slender paired colonnettes.
This chapel is an important element in the development of the
Decorated Style in the late C13.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol:
London: 1958-: 314; Colchester LS: Wells Cathedral: A History:
Shepton Mallet: 1982-: 227-244; Bony J: The English Decorated
Style: London: 1979-: PASSIM).
Listing NGR: ST5520745735
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 483260
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, (1958), 314
Bony, J, The English Decorated Style, (1979)
Colchester, LS, Wells Cathedral: A History, (1982), 227-244
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 17-Jun-2026 at 04:18:25.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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