BISHOP BURNELL'S GREAT HALL

BISHOP BURNELL'S GREAT HALL, 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:: 1382875
Date first listed:: 12-Nov-1953
List Entry Name:: BISHOP BURNELL'S GREAT HALL
Statutory Address:: BISHOP BURNELL'S GREAT HALL, BISHOP'S PALACE

User submitted image — Uploaded by Paul Adams This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2007-08-01
Reference:: IOE01/16712/02
Rights:: © Mr John H. Sparkes. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1382875
Date first listed:: 12-Nov-1953
Date of most recent amendment:: 31-May-2000
List Entry Name:: BISHOP BURNELL'S GREAT HALL
Statutory Address 1:: BISHOP BURNELL'S GREAT HALL, BISHOP'S PALACE

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:: BISHOP BURNELL'S GREAT HALL, 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 55174 45693, ST 55207 45709

Details

WELLS

ST5445 BISHOP'S PALACE 662-1/7/6 Bishop Burnell's Great Hall 12/11/53 (Formerly Listed as: BISHOP'S PALACE (including... ruins of Great Hall...))

GV I

Ruins of former mediaeval bishop's hall house. c1280, part demolished c1830. Local rubble with Doulting stone dressings, no roof. Remains of large 5-bay aisled hall, approx 35m long and 18m wide internally, with screens passage and N porch; solar and undercroft to right (W). What now remains is the N wall, W wall, remnants of the arcade column bases, and a detached turret to the SE corner of the E wall. The N wall has 4 lofty 2-light geometrical Decorated windows, with sexfoil head over cusped lights, and cusped transom; to the right the inner doorway to the former N porch, and at either end are remains of octagonal stair turrets. At the W end, with 2 octagonal turrets, later single-storey C19 service buildings have been added, with a narrow central courtyard; there was already some low-level extension here in 1730 and before. On the S side is a length of low wall extending towards the E, including a pointed doorway with mouldings. Originally this was a most impressive large hall residence. It is believed to have been built after the commencement of the Chapel (qv), and appears in Buck's view of 1730 apparently still complete, with a deep 2-storey N porch, 3 of the windows (that to the E seems blocked by a solid wall), and 4 roof gables or dormers; the S and E walls were finally demolished in the early C19 by Bishop Law "... to make a more picturesque ruin...", and, in Pevsner's words, with the remainder of the Palace complex, "...is the product of the gentle romanticism of the C18 and early C19." (Colchester LS: Wells Cathedral: A History: Shepton Mallet: 1982-: 232; Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 315).

Listing NGR: ST5516845702

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 483261
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Colchester, LS , Wells Cathedral: A History, (1982), 232
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, (1958), 315

Legal

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