Listing Text

WELLS

ST5446 THE LIBERTY
662-1/6/301 (North side)
12/11/53 No.5
Ritchie Hall
(Formerly Listed as:
THE LIBERTY
(North side)
No.5
(Formerly listed as Cathedral
Grammar School, North Liberty))

GV II*

Part of the Wells Cathedral School. 1884, but incorporating
fragments of a C12 Canon's Barn. Local stone roughly squared
and coursed, with ashlar dressings, Welsh slate roofs with
terracotta ridge, coped gables.
EXTERIOR: single and 2-storey, in a C15 style, 4 bays. Bay 1
is a projecting hall, with 5-light mullioned and transomd
window with hoodmould over, bays 2 and 4, set back, have
similar windows. Bay 3 is a deep projecting 2-storey porch,
with plinth, parapet string and crenellation; the first floor
has two 2-light C15-style traceried windows, and below is the
entrance doorway with a moulded arch with label. Above the
door a flush stone plaque is inscribed:
"SCHOLA/CATHEDRALIS/MDCCCLXXXIV".
INTERIOR: in the rear part of the building are 6 square piers
with slightly rounded corners, to square chamfered abaci, and
on double offset chamfered bases, carrying a heavy square
aisle-plate. According to Pevsner documents refer to the
Canon's Barn in Bishop Reginald's time, c1175-90, and if these
are fragments from that time, they are the earliest secular
fabric remaining in the city, and hence of considerable
historic interest.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and
Bristol: London: 1958-: 328).

Listing NGR: ST5504646078