Description

WELLS

ST5445 HIGH STREET
662-1/7/80 (North side)
24/01/94 No.4

GV II

House in row, with shop. Late C15 or C16 structure to rear,
some C17 fabric in front range, mid C20 facade. Rubble with
some timber-frame, but rendered and colourwashed brickwork
facade, slate roofs.
PLAN: a narrow-frontage unit with winder stair rear right, and
a small yard to rear, right, covered; to the rear, offset
left, and interlocking with No.6 (qv) adjoining, a shallow
range parallel with High Street and with gable to the E. All
considerably modified by removal of walls and structure.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and basement, 1 bay width; ground floor
C20 shop-front with near-central recessed doorway and deep
fascia. At first floor is a wide 9-light steel casement, and
above is a similar 6-light casement. False pilasters return as
a dentilled parapet, all formed in the rendering; the gable to
the rear range is rendered, and contains an early C19 16-pane
sash. The main range also has an early 2-light casement in the
rear wall.
INTERIOR: the ground-floor front has no early structure
visible; the rear room is smaller, with one chamfered and
stopped beam, built into the wall, left, but suspended on a
stirrup, right, where earlier walling has been removed. There
is an C18 fielded panel door to the basement (not accessible).
A late C19 dog-leg staircase to the right has remains of a
diagonal stick balustrade with turned newel, and at the upper
landing, where structural walling has been removed, is a
slender cast-iron column carrying a beam.
First-floor front has, approximately 800mm from the front
wall, a full-width chamfered beam with lamb's-tongue stops.
The rear room has substantial remains of heavy framing, but to
the right the original structure was removed, and a thick wall
inserted, itself now partly removed. In the party wall are 2
substantial structural posts, one in the rear corner with wide
rough chamfer to a run-out stop carrying a broad beam partly
built in to the party wall at the rear; this wall has a C20
fireplace. The centre beam has large square stops to the left,
and run-out to the right, partly built in to the wall. The
upper flight of stairs has been removed.
Second floor front has no visible early features, and a steep
hipped roof of the C20. The rear room, entered through a
wide-plank ledged door, has a 2-bay roof with 2 trusses-the
third, to the right, removed with the rebuilding of this gable
wall.
The roof has cambered collars, 2 purlins with run-out stops,
and broad chamfered wind-braces in the middle range; the outer
brace to the E is missing.
This property has considerable historic fabric of interest,
which appears to interlock with, and may have been built as
part of No.6; the shallow front range is oddly related on
plan.
(Hale B: Vernacular Architecture Group Report: 1988-).

Listing NGR: ST5495845756

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26662944

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

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)