Description

WELLS

ST5445 HIGH STREET
662-1/7/82 (North side)
12/11/53 No.6
(Formerly Listed as:
HIGH STREET
(North side)
Nos.6 AND 8
King Charles Bar)

GV II*

House, with shop. C16, some work dated 1673, front mid C20.
Rubble, painted brickwork front, hipped Welsh slate roof
behind parapet, but rear ranges with asbestos-cement slate.
PLAN: originally seems to have been a double-depth plan house
with central transverse staircase, to which was added a third
range across the rear; all 3 ranges have gabled ends to ridges
parallel with High Street, and part of the property may have
been absorbed later in No.4 (qv) adjoining.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and basement, 3 bays. Late C20 shop front
across ground floor, mostly deeply recessed, all in hardwood.
Above, two 3-light transomd casement windows to first-floor,
and three 2-light casements to second floor, all with
rectangular leaded panes and set under brick soldier arches,
dentilled brick cornice and stepped parapet: the facade detail
continues across No.8 (qv).
The rear wall has, at first floor, four C17 wood casements;
two of these are 2-light, with mullion and transom, and 2 are
3-light, with central opening unit flanked by horizontal bars.
At first floor level in the E gables is a long shallow 6-light
casement with horizontal bars.
INTERIOR: the ground floor has been opened up by removal of
partitions. The shop has cased ceiling beams, and in centre,
through from ground to second floor, a very fine wide early
C17 dog-leg staircase, with strapwork-panelled and capped
newels, deep handrails and elaborate scrolled and carved
balustrade panels, turned balusters (some modern) to outer
balustrades. In rear wall of the mid range is a wide 3-centre
chamfered arched fireplace, with ornamental brick and tile
fireback dated "E.G. August 6 1673". In the rear range, to the
left, is an early C17 newel staircase, and traces of
timber-framing in the rear wall. In the E party wall are two
recesses revealing parts of blocked arches of uncertain date,
and a wide 6-light casement in deep reveals, set high.
At first floor the main stair landing has a fine 2-panel C17
door with cambered head on scrolls, in a C16 moulded frame;
opposite this, on 3 steps, is a 2-panel fielded door in
ovolo-mould frame, and there is a 12-pane sash to the W. The
front room has a cornice moulding, and the middle room an
early 4-light casement with horizontal bars, and a very large
square beam. The rear room is in 4 bays with very broad
ceiling beams, that to the middle bay with mortices on each
side; the rear wall has 4 windows, all of the C17, in 2
patterns, and there is a C16 stone fireplace with square
opening to a moulded stopped surround in the E wall. This room
has an early moulded skirting. In the SW corner is an entrance
to the newel stair.
At second-floor level are two borrowed lights in the
partitions to the staircase, unglazed, with fine turned
balusters. Some large roof principals are visible above the
stair. The rear range has some early floor-boards, but a C20
roof structure. The middle range retains 4 bays of collar
trusses, the collars removed, with 2 purlins; this roof is in
2 sections of differing date, with a central partition, and
the purlins in the E section are heavier than the others. The
cellar was not accessible.
The property, which was extended to the N soon after
completion of the front ranges, was clearly a town house to a
merchant of some wealth and retains some fine features
especially of the C17. Its quality is belied by the bland C20
frontage.

Listing NGR: ST5494845763

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17553014

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

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014