Details
WELLS
ST5445 NEW STREET
662-1/7/177 (West side)
12/11/53 No.9
Ritchie House, with boundary walls
and outbuilding
GV II
House at end of row, now part of Wells Cathedral School. Late
C18 or early C19. Bath stone ashlar, Welsh slate mansard roof
between coped gables, ashlar stone chimney stacks.
PLAN: a double-pile symmetrical plan, with internal valley;
central entrance hall, internal lateral corridor, and rear
geometrical stair in semicircular well, not reflected
externally; to the left is a cross passage to a rear secondary
staircase, and a hipped, full-height wing projects rear left.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with attics and basement, 5 bays. Plinth,
cornice, plain parapet. Large sash windows in plain openings,
12-pane to ground floor and 9-pane to first-floor stone
surround; the first 2 bays have 2-light stone casement
basement windows, with plain mullions and to segmental heads.
On 4 stone steps a glazed door in stone doorcase of attached
Ionic columns carrying entablature and pediment. Behind the
parapet are 3 dormer windows with segmental-arched roofs, the
left-hand a double 6-pane sash, the others single 6-pane
sashes.
The right return is rendered, with 2 stacks joined by a
straight parapet. At ground floor is a canted bay with flat
roof and parapet on plain sashes, with a pair of french doors,
and there are 2 small 9-pane sashes to the attic.
The rear wall has 9 and 12-pane sashes, and 2 arched sashes
with Y-tracery to the staircase.
INTERIOR: all on a grand scale, retaining much original detail
in shutters, doorcases, and doors; these generally panelled,
with raised mouldings, and with reeded surrounds. The inner
casing to the main entrance has fluted pilasters and an
entablature, and the hall floor is in Minton tiles. Main rooms
to left and right have fireplaces, to the left a boxed-in C19
cast-iron surround, and to right in white marble with heavy
scrolls and tile insert; this room has a palmette frieze with
cornice. The hall is entered through an elliptical arch to the
staircase (repeated at the 2 upper levels), with panelled
soffite and linings.
The wooden geometric staircase has scrolled treads-the scrolls
repeated across the trimming of the first floor landing-reeded
stick balusters, and a swept handrail. There are 2 Gothick
lights with Y-tracery to this staircase. The secondary stair,
with stone flag floor carried through from the side passage,
is an unusually large open-well, and has stick balusters. This
also descends to the basement, which has a series of
transverse brick barrel vaults.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: to the N of the main house, adjoining the
party boundary near the street front are the remains of a C16
outbuilding, formerly on 2 floors. This is in rubble, roughly
square on plan, and retains the upper part of a stone doorway
with 4-centred head; the lower parts of the jambs are below
the present ground level. Extending northwards from the NE
corner of house, starting with a curved break forward, is a
random stone wall on ashlar plinth, with plain coping, leading
to a boarded gate; this returns along the N edge of the site,
and across the rear at a height of approx 2.75m.
The walls form part of the streetscape opposite the junction
of The Liberty with New Street.
Listing NGR: ST5491745953
