Wells Infirmary Main Block (Also Known As Priory Hospital)

WELLS INFIRMARY MAIN BLOCK (ALSO KNOWN AS PRIORY HOSPITAL), GLASTONBURY ROAD

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1382946
Date first listed:
13-Sept-1972
List Entry Name:
Wells Infirmary Main Block (Also Known As Priory Hospital)
Statutory Address:
WELLS INFIRMARY MAIN BLOCK (ALSO KNOWN AS PRIORY HOSPITAL), GLASTONBURY ROAD
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Date:
2004-09-06
Reference:
IOE01/13174/01
Rights:
© Mr John H. Sparkes. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1382946
Date first listed:
13-Sept-1972
List Entry Name:
Wells Infirmary Main Block (Also Known As Priory Hospital)
Statutory Address 1:
WELLS INFIRMARY MAIN BLOCK (ALSO KNOWN AS PRIORY HOSPITAL), GLASTONBURY ROAD

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
WELLS INFIRMARY MAIN BLOCK (ALSO KNOWN AS PRIORY HOSPITAL), GLASTONBURY ROAD

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 54355 45131

Details

WELLS

ST5445 GLASTONBURY ROAD
662-1/5/76 (North side)
13/09/72 Wells Infirmary, main block (also
known as Priory Hospital)

GV II

Former workhouse, now hospital. 1845, by ST Welch, extended
1871. Local stone squared and coursed, with Bath stone
dressings, Welsh slate roofs between coped gables, brick
chimney stacks.
EXTERIOR: mostly 2 storeys, but with 3-storey centre crossing
south elevation of 15 bays, of which bays 1 and 15, and the
central bays 6 to 10, project slightly. In a Tudor style. Bays
1 and 15 have angled corner buttresses with single offsets and
pinnacles, the gables also having central pinnacles, with band
course to first floor sills, single-light 4-centre arched
windows to both floors with arched labels, steel casements
inserted, trefoil panels in gables.
Bays 2 to 5 and bays 11 to 14 have rectangular windows with
square labels. Of the central projecting bays, bay 6 and 10
have corner buttresses and pinnacles, and bays 7 and 9 are
canted so that bay 8 has a greater projection, these bays
three storey, forming south end of the central crosswing.
Plain doorways to bays 6 and 10 and plain rectangular windows
to ground floor bays 7 and 9, the first floor bays have
2-light 'Y'-traceried windows with transoms and arched labels
to all but bay 8, which in a matching 4-light window. The
second-floor windows to this section have square windows on
the splays and another 4-light window to bay 8, over which is
a statue recess in the pinnacled gable.
The main entrance in bay 8 has a pair of panelled doors in a
4-centre arch flanked by two lancet windows, over which is a
pediment hood on brackets and a wrought-iron bracket for a
light, the door approached by 5 steps with simple wrought-iron
handrail.
The side crosswings have some 12-pane sash windows in
segmental arched openings, these are echoed in the Red Cross
medical loan store attached at the north end of the west wing
by a short link wing. The taller centre crosswing has 5 bays,
then canted ends leading to an octagonal tower in the centre,
with a matching 5-bay unit northwards, again mostly with sash
windows in segmental arched-openings.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol:
London: 1958-: 326).


Listing NGR: ST5435545131

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:
483349
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, (1958), 326

Legal

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

Ordnance survey map of Wells Infirmary Main Block (Also Known As Priory Hospital)

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 19-Jun-2026 at 14:43:29.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

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.

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