Description

WELLS

ST5446 THE LIBERTY
662-1/6/313 (East side)
12/11/53 No.25
The Dean's Lodging

GV II*

Large detached house. On the site of earlier buildings, but
rebuilt by Dr Edward Powell as a "new Canonical house", and
completed by 1610; C18 modification and some refenestration,
extensive restoration and modernisation in 1970. Local random
rubble stone with ashlar dressings, Welsh slate roof with sawn
stone ridge between coped gables, stone chimney stacks.
PLAN: a near symmetrical single-depth plan with central full
height porch, return cross-gabled wing to the right, and a
second rear wing, enclosing a small courtyard; the main
staircase lies to the rear of the main entrance hall. The
original had an L-plan, with a hall and spiral stairway to the
chamber.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with attics, 5 bays, with attic gables to
end bays and projecting gabled porch. Plinth, bay 3 only has
string between floors. Ground floor has ovolo-mould mullioned
windows with labels, 4-light to outer bays and 3-light bays 2
and 4, first floor has 12-pane replacement sash windows with
stone lintels Attic windows to bays 1, 3 and 5 are 3-light
ovolo-mullioned with labels. The porch all ashlar at
ground-floor level, with moulded 4-centre outer and inner
arches, with circular motifs to spandrels of inner arch, C19
inner door. Relieving arches to all ground-floor openings, and
to bays 1, 3 and 5 of first floor.
The right return is 2-gabled, with 2, 3 and 4-light
stone-mullioned casements, as is the rear gable to this wing,
with 4 levels of casements, some with ovolo and some with
chamfer mullions.
INTERIOR: many of the rooms are simply detailed. The ground
floor has one front room fully panelled with C18 ovolo-mould
fielded panels, and with a small stone 4-centred fireplace
with stopped mouldings, and a large elliptical recess. Some
floors are in stone or brick. At the foot of the staircase are
2 wide and flat elliptical stone arches. The open- well stair
with quarter landings has a stick balustrade, and an area of
C17 panelling; a second staircase, to the rear, has oak treads
and a simple stick balustrade.
The roofs are in heavy scantlings, with plain collars; 2 of
the trusses have panel and muntin screens below the collars,
possibly adapted from the earlier building on the site. A
straight-headed 3-light C15 window, perhaps from the
demolished Stillington Chapel, and a stone spiral staircase
also remain.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol:
London: 1958-: 327; Town and Country Planning Working Papers:
Scrase A J: Wells: A Study of Town Origins: Bristol: 1982-:
32; Bailey S: Canonical Houses of Wells: Gloucester: 1982-:
83).

Listing NGR: ST5522446042

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17553196

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

• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014