Chapter House to Cathedral Church of St Andrew
CHAPTER HOUSE TO CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST ANDREW, CATHEDRAL GREEN
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1382900
- Date first listed:
- 12-Nov-1953
- List Entry Name:
- Chapter House to Cathedral Church of St Andrew
- Statutory Address:
- CHAPTER HOUSE TO CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST ANDREW, CATHEDRAL GREEN
Location
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Images of England Project
- Reference:
- IOE01/15327/35
- Rights:
- © Mr John Barker. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1382900
- Date first listed:
- 12-Nov-1953
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 31-May-2000
- List Entry Name:
- Chapter House to Cathedral Church of St Andrew
- Statutory Address 1:
- CHAPTER HOUSE TO CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST ANDREW, CATHEDRAL GREEN
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:
- CHAPTER HOUSE TO CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST ANDREW, CATHEDRAL GREEN
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 55163 45912
Details
WELLS
ST5445
CATHEDRAL GREEN
662-1/7/33
(East side)
12/11/53
Chapter House to Cathedral Church of St Andrew
(Formerly Listed as: CATHEDRAL GREEN Cathedral Church of St Andrew (including Chain Gate and Cloisters))
I
Chapter House. 1290-c 1307. Doulting ashlar with blue Lias dressings, some Purbeck marble internal dressings; lead roof.
EXTERIOR: octagonal with deep angle buttresses, set back mid height with gargoyles to attached pinnacles above, with a weathered band above, with a weathered band above the undercroft, and an arcade of two-light lancets beneath a parapet of pierced quatrefoils.
Each face has two chamfered arched windows to the undercroft, and a full-width
four-light window with Decorated tracery and an ogee hood. Stair passage up from the north chancel aisle has a moulded parapet, with two four-light windows.
The stairway to the Chapter House and Chain bridge (qv) of two bays with Purbeck marble vault shafts, those at the bottom of the stair on good carved figure shafts and spherical capitals to the west windows, and a Tudor-arched doorway at the top in a square frame beneath a two-light Decorated tracery set within an arch of three orders as the windows. To the west side are stepped seats, to the east the steps curve off to a two-bay-wide vaulted lobby with open cusped entrances with cusped trefoils above and panelled walls, and Purbeck marble shafts.
The Chapter House has vault shafts in the angles to a fine tierceron vault with a central octagonal shaft with 36 ribs, and spherical foliate bosses; the central shaft has a Purbeck marble bench, the sides have two tiers of wall benches, an arcade of gabled seat niches, and a surround of ball flowers to the windows.
The early C13 undercroft, formerly the treasury, has a central octagonal column with attached shafts, eight intermediate round shafts, and vault shafts, all with hollow-moulded capitals, and rere arches, with a piscina by the door and a carved dog.
The mid C13 doorway from the north aisle has a depressed arch and a bar tracery open gable on head stops above, and fine C13 doors with scrolled ironwork; three bay passage from the aisle has a sexpartite vault, stiff leaf capitals and good pictorial bosses, with head corbels on the east side.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
This entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 20 February 2018.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 483286
- Legacy System:
- LBS
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 24-Jun-2026 at 13:03:35.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.