Gatehouse and Boundary Wall With Bridge Over Moat
GATEHOUSE AND BOUNDARY WALL WITH BRIDGE OVER MOAT, 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:
- 1382876
- Date first listed:
- 12-Nov-1953
- List Entry Name:
- Gatehouse and Boundary Wall With Bridge Over Moat
- Statutory Address:
- GATEHOUSE AND BOUNDARY WALL WITH BRIDGE OVER MOAT, BISHOP'S PALACE
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2007-08-01
- Reference:
- IOE01/16712/15
- 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:
- 1382876
- Date first listed:
- 12-Nov-1953
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 31-May-2000
- List Entry Name:
- Gatehouse and Boundary Wall With Bridge Over Moat
- Statutory Address 1:
- GATEHOUSE AND BOUNDARY WALL WITH BRIDGE OVER MOAT, 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:
- GATEHOUSE AND BOUNDARY WALL WITH BRIDGE OVER MOAT, 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:
- ST5512945766
Details
ST5545
662-1/7/7
12/11/53
WELLS
BISHOP'S PALACE
Gatehouse and boundary wall with bridge over moat
(Formerly Listed as:
BISHOP'S PALACE
(including Gatehouse and Walls...))
GV
I
Wall with corner towers and gatehouse, surrounded by moat.
c1341 (date of license to Crenellate) by Bishop Ralph of
Shrewsbury. Local stone rubble with ashlar copings and other
dressings, average 5m high.
PLAN: irregular, with 6 bastion towers, that to the NW,
sometimes referred to as the prison, has a small but lofty
room, with apsidal W end, and looks more like a small chapel;
it has stone tablets with the decalogue set high on the walls.
The gatehouse lies on the N side.
The wall is boldly crenellated with some arrowslits.
Part of the N side is incorporated in that part of the
Bishop's Palace (qv) presently known as Bishop's House.
The gatehouse in random rubble with Doulting stone dressings
with lead flat roof behind crenellated parapets.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, the gateway bay flanked by two
rectangular towers with corners chamfered on north side.
Towers have mostly arrowslits to ground and first floors, but
east face of east tower has a 2-light mullioned window with
square label (under which is the Swans' Bell), the N face has
a circular cinquefoil window, and to the NE corner an angled
oriel window at first floor level of 1+2+2+1 lights, with
moulded base and reeded frieze to a lead flat roof.
The centre gateway has a 4-centre arch in a rectangular recess
with carved spandrels, part of the portcullis and the chains
of the drawbridge (now connected to a modern fixed bridge)
remain, arch has a pair of possibly C14 gates with an inserted
wicket of c1600. Above this a single lancet with cusped window
set deep inside.
Inside the gateway is a quadripartite ribbed vault with short
spring shafts, and carved head boss and corbels.
In E wall of this space a small oriel window, presumably for
the gatekeeper. Side doors in the projection of the towers
south of the minor gate arch.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
The enclosing wall with its moat helps to provide what Pevsner
(op cit) calls an "...exquisite beauty of setting...".
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol:
London: 1958-: 314; Colchester LS: Wells Cathedral: A History:
Shepton Mallet: 1982-: 227-244).
Listing NGR: ST5512945766
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 483262
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, (1958), 314
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 23-Jun-2026 at 17:53:44.
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