Description

ST6834NW
8/120

BRUTON CP
HIGH STREET (South side)
Sexey's Hospital : West Wing, with Chapel

24.3.61

GV I

Almshouse, with chapel. c1638. Local stone cut and squared with Doulting stone dressings; stone slate roofs behind
parapets, with coped gables; stone chimney stacks with moulded caps. 'J'-plan, 2 storeys with undercroft on South
side; street elevation of 8 bays. Plinth, eaves string, plain parapet; mostly paired cusped headed windows under
continuous stepped label below and string course above; no window lower bay 2, plain cambered arched doorway bay 4;
lead rainwater stackhead at West end. Inner courtyard has matching elevations, with one door and one 2-light window to
each living unit, 3 to each level on North and West sides, the upper units reached by oak access stair and gallery of
1882 in C17 style; the 3-bay South side has stepped 3-light windows, bay 1 being the chapel window, with smaller
similar windows set into gables bays 2 and 3 above; cambered arched doorways to right of each bay, that to bay 2
having flat stone hood on corbel brackets, to bay 3 now blocked by staircase; above doorway between bays 2 and 3 a
3-centre arched recess with architrave in which is set decorated bust of the founder under moulted canopy with
cartoucle of arms and plaque under inscribed "Hugh Sexey, Esq., Founder - of this Hospitall - Auditor to Queene
Elizabeth and King - James", and signed "Wm Stanton, London, fecit". C16 style East chapel window in gable end. South
garden front 2 storeys with attic, 4 bays; paired cusped 2-light windows under shared labels to ground, with stepped
3-light to first floor and attic gables, but with 3-light C15 traceried pointer arch chapel window upper bay 4.
Interiors of living units probably modified, but Chapel completely unchanged, with plain timber coving to plaster
barrel vault ceiling, C17 panelling and stall-type pews, matching pulpit with tester and lower reading desk and very
small altar table. next to chapel the Visitors' entrance, with wide oak plank floors, C17 board and panel doors, and
fine timber screen with Ionic columns, leading into Visitors' room, plain but with wide cambered arched fireplace; good
stairs to Master's flat above, which has several C17 doors, a small cambered arched fireplace, and the exposed collar
trusses of roof frame. First almshouse in Bruton recorded in 1292; Hugh Sexey, a substantial landowner in Bruton died
1619; his trustees decided to rebuild some former charity houses on opposite side of road endowed by Sexey during his
lifetime, in or about 1638. (Couzens P, Bruton in Selwood, Abbey Press, Sherborne, 1972).

Listing NGR: ST6810034720

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Sexey's Hospital at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7458558

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)