Description

LICHFIELD

SK1109NE THE CLOSE
1094-1/5/215 (North side)
05/02/52 St Chad's Cathedral School and
Chapel
(Formerly Listed as:
THE CLOSE
Episcopal Palace and Chapel
adjoining)

GV I

Also known as: Episcopal Palace THE CLOSE.
Former episcopal palace, now school and attached chapel.
1687-8. By Edward Pierce, one of Wren's masons; wings and
chapel of 1869. Ashlar; hipped tile roof with ashlar stacks.
U-plan with later wings to front, forming H-plan, with chapel
to rear angle. Queen Anne style.
2 storeys with basement and attic; symmetrical 7-window range,
3-window centre breaks forward under pediment with arms and
date: 1687. Plain plinth, platt band over ground floor and top
modillioned timber cornice; rusticated quoins.
Entrance up 10 bowed steps, with iron handrails and C19 lamp,
has architrave, frieze and consoled segmental pediment, paired
5-fielded-panel doors, 2 glazed. 2-light windows to basement,
others have moulded sills and architraves to pegged
cross-casements with iron opening lights and leaded glazing;
attic has 4 hipped dormers with 2-light leaded casements.
C19 wings have moulded plinths, quoins, cornices and hipped
roofs. 2-storey wing to left has front cross-casement and
flanking transomed lights, 3 panels over and round-headed
dormer with bull's eye, C19 lamp to angle; 5 transomed lights
to right return, 2 lateral stacks and entrance to left.
Single-storey wing to right has similar details, but
Diocletian window above window to front; left return has 3
windows, 2 with cross-casements, one blind, 2 dormers; right
return has lateral stack and 2 blind windows, entrance and 2
dormers.
Left return has glazed lean-to to ground floor; right return
has C19 full-height addition to angle with front wing,
3-window range to right has 9/1-pane sashes to ground floor,
two 12/8-pane sashes and one cross-casement to 1st floor.
Rear has 2-window wings; entrance with architrave and French
window, and flanking 12-pane sashes, 9/1-pane sashes to ground
floor of right wing and 6/1-pane sashes to left inner return,
other windows have cross-casements, mostly leaded, those to
ground floor of left wing are blocked behind glazing; 4
dormers.
4-bay chapel to right angle has coped gables; buttress to
right of left end bay marking sanctuary; lancets have flanking
Tudor flower motifs and continuous hood; lancet to east
return. West end has half-round turret with bell cote and
flanking lancets; south elevation has lean-to passage with
tiny lancets and pointed entrance with gablet.
INTERIOR: hall has fireplace with ex-situ panelled overmantel
with arms of Bishop Hackett and date: 1669; open well stair to
right has turned balusters, panelled newels and moulded
handrail, landing has 3 timber arches; stair to left has
slender turned balusters and ball finials to newels; 2-panel
doors, one to panelled room to left end has eared architrave,
pulvinated frieze and cornice. Room has bolection-moulded
panelling with dado rail and corner fireplace, deep
entablature; other rooms have mostly C19 detail.
Chapel has arch-braced roof with wall shafts marking
sanctuary, which has ceiling and window recesses forming
sedilia; panelled wainscotting has shafts to brattished
cornice, east end has some linenfold and quatrefoils, with C17
relief panels to reredos; wall painting to sanctuary dated
1916, east window has shafts and moulded trefoil head; west
gallery over arched timber screen with attached stalls with
misericords.
Stained glass: windows have C19 panels, some retaining
decorative settings. The building is impressive, with many
original features and sensitive C19 additions. The palace was
the home of the bishop only from the 1860s, before that being
the home of Gilbert Walmsley, friend of Garrick and Johnson,
and Anna Seward, poet, known as the Swan of Lichfield. The
palace became a school in 1954.
(Victoria History of the County of Stafford: Greenslade M W:
Lichfield: Oxford: 1990-: P.61-2).

Listing NGR: SK1156409854

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Bishop's Palace, Lichfield at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q4917431

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

• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2