Wells Museum
WELLS MUSEUM, CATHEDRAL GREEN
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1382911
- Date first listed:
- 12-Nov-1953
- List Entry Name:
- Wells Museum
- Statutory Address:
- WELLS MUSEUM, CATHEDRAL GREEN
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-04-30
- Reference:
- IOE01/03211/30
- Rights:
- © John Boothroyd. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1382911
- Date first listed:
- 12-Nov-1953
- List Entry Name:
- Wells Museum
- Statutory Address 1:
- WELLS MUSEUM, 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:
- WELLS MUSEUM, 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 55075 45942
Details
WELLS
ST5445 CATHEDRAL GREEN
662-1/7/41 (North side)
12/11/53 Wells Museum
GV II
Former Chancellors' House, now museum. C15 origins, but mostly
C17, C18 and C19 work, much of the front being remodelled
c1828. Rendered with stone dressings, Welsh slate roofs with
shaped stone ridges between coped gables, rendered and stone
chimney stacks.
PLAN: U-plan, possibly began as a hall house, with service
wing to the left, and parlour to the right, but now with
2-storey centre having a broad entrance hall backed by a
generous lateral staircase, and the wings substantially
remodelled or rebuilt.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with attics at ends; south facade has 3
bays between projecting wings, with porch in SW corner.
Plinth, moulded strings and copings to gables, which have
console kneeler brackets. West end gable has large angled bay
window to ground floor with stepped hipped lead roof, and with
lancet-panelled frieze under window, having 8-pane sash
windows with 4-centre arched heads to each face, first floor
has a small single-light window, east gable similar but with a
single matching 8-pane sash window to ground floor, set under
a label, again with frieze under sill. Central bays have pairs
of 12-pane sash windows in plain architraves, linked to bays 1
and 2 and separate in bay 3; first floor has Venetian windows
to match of 8 + 12 + 8 panes with radial glazing to centre
units; left of bay 1 the porch, single storey, with matching
gable and 4-centre-arched doorway with pair early C19 doors,
small single-light window with square label over.
In the west flank of the east projecting wing is a 4-light
chamfer-mullioned window with early glazing at low level, with
a similar blocked window near the outer corner.
INTERIOR: the low-ceilinged entrance hall opens to a generous
staircase hall with wide early C19 lateral stair having stick
balustrade and swept mahogany handrail, and scrolled ends to
open treads; the rear wall has a fine Palladian window with
linings, and there is a coved cornice.
The suite at first floor, left, has a grand front salon
completed in Gothic Revival style with slightly bowed ends,
panelled doors and linings, a coved cornice with continuous
inset frieze of formalised leaves, and a marble fireplace in
the W wall.
The ante-room is similarly detailed, and has, in the W wall, a
large 12-pane sash plus side-lights, intersecting Y-bars and
some tinted glass, and with original shutters. Sections of
deeply-chamfered beams to rear. C17 roof trusses using earlier
material.
Listing NGR: ST5507245938
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 483314
- 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 25-Jun-2026 at 01:12:37.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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