Wells

The Wells and the Cathedral

We have made a lot of trips on family business to Somerset in the last year or two and done some wonderful walks on the Somerset Levels and on the Mendips: for example Priddy, Cheddar Gorge, Glastonbury, Shipham and Dolbury Hill, Allerton Moor, Axbridge, Crook Peak.

Today was probably the last such trip and I wanted to have a proper look at Wells, somewhere I had visited but only fleetingly. I downloaded the excellent City trail from the Wells tourism website - you can also get a printed copy from the tourist office. The trail is excellent - but beware the downloaded version which prints out at a size you need a magnifying glass to read.

You start the walk in the Market Square and with your back to the Town Hall of 1779, you turn right through the handsome 15th century gateway known as the Bishop's Eye, in search of the Bishop's Palace.



If you don't know Wells, the view on the other side is a real surprise: you come on high walls and a moat, behind which the palace is concealed. They were built in the 14th century. The gatehouse, of the same period, is on the left in the photograph.


The Palace is normally closed at this time of year, but was open today in honour of half-term. The central section of the palace dates from 1230, but the upper storey is the result of a 19th century restoration by the architect Benjamin Ferrey. The interior has a nondescript Victorian quality.



The chapel, to the right, dates from 1274-94 and is, to quote Pevsner, "a building of great beauty, especially internally". He says this apparently without irony. The chapel is indeed harmonious and striking inside, but from the outside seems entirely disproportionate to the palace. However, to the right of the chapel is the ruins of the great hall, with which it is more in scale.

I went through the grounds, rounds the ramparts and located the wells which gave the town its name. There are four of them and now come up in a sort of pond. The photo at the top of this post shows the view across the wells towards the cathedral.

The trail goes round the outside of the walls and the moat to a point where you can glimpse the wells and then the route returns to the market square. This time you take the other gateway, Penniless Porch, into the cathedral close.



The magnificent 13th century facade is to your right. Medieval church building started at the east end with the chancel, so the west front would normally be the last to be built. The main facade dates from the 13th century, while the towers were added in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. (The earlier parts of the cathedral date from about 1180-1240.) Pevsner is surprisingly critical of the west front , finding it harsh and angular.



Inside there is a wealth of treasures, but I was especially keen to see the great scissor arch at the end of the nave, which I have repeatedly seen in photos of the cathedral - and on the cover of my edition of the North Somerset and Bristol Pevsner. It is a magnificent sight. There are in fact two further sets of arches at right angles to the one at the end of the nave - that is, around three sides of the crossing tower. They were inserted a hundred years after the cathedral was begun to support the tower when the foundations began to sink. Although six hundred years old they have a striking modernity.



You emerge from the cathedral to walk across the close and walk along the road on the north side. Soon you come to Vicars' Close, built in 1363 for the Vicars Choral. Apparently they had previously lived in lodgings in the town and were sometimes unruly. The picture is slightly lop-sided because it was now raining heavily and I had to take it from the shelter of the gatehouse.



The remainder of the walk was rather foreshortened because I had run out of time - it was also very wet. I walked up East Liberty and turned left into North Liberty, passing various parts of the Cathedral School. I then went down Sadler St and along Chamberlain St back to where I had parked.

The main losses were that I was unable to see St Cuthbert's church with its painted roof and three sets of almshouses.

Rating: four stars. Some wonderful sights. It deserved much more time than I was able to devote to it, but it was still a memorable experience.