Description

WELLS

ST5445 MARKET PLACE
662-1/7/144 (South side)
12/11/53 Nos.4 AND 6
The Crown Hotel

GV II*

Nos 8 and 10 Market Place (qv) are also incorporated in the
this property. Hotel. Late C16, but incorporating earlier
fabric in rear wing. Rendered, probably over timber-frame,
clay pantiled triple-gabled roof, the ridges at right angles
to the street.
PLAN: wide frontage with central carriageway, and with long
rear wing to right; plan modified, but double depth each side
of throughway, main staircase originally at junction of main
range and wing.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, 3 bays. C20 timber canted bays to ground
floor, with throughway under centre bay, flanked by carved
timber posts, and a 16-pane light to its right; above this
floor a slate pentice roof over a shallow fascia. First and
second floors have shallow canted bay windows, of 1+4+1
transomd lights, ovolo mould, with continuous pentice roofs to
each level, all windows rectangular leaded. Between both bays
at second floor level and bays 2 and 3 first floor are
star-leaded upright oval windows in rectangular panels,
between bays 1 and 2 first floor a projecting hanging sign on
wrought-iron brackets. Throughway enclosed at mid-point,
before this traces of moulded jambs in side walls, and on
right a chamfered 4-centre archway.
Rear elevation has several gables at varying levels, with one
wider weatherboarded gable having an early C18 composite sash
window of 12+8+12 panes, with very thick glazing bars.
Extending southwards a 3-bay wing, 2 storeys with attics, also
late C16. Ground floor has a 2-light casement and a
part-glazed door, void bay 2, 2-light casement to bay 3. The
outer bays at first floor level have square oriel windows of
1+5+1 transomd lights, ovolo-moulded, with hipped slate
pentice roofs, set on deep ornamental wood brackets on a
carved wall plate, with carved stone panels between the
brackets, between these a 5-light mullioned window. Attic
windows are 1+3+1 light oriel ovolo-mould mullioned casements,
mostly diamond-leaded, the shallow hipped roofs of the first
floor oriels reaching the sills of these upper windows, the
central oriel on 3 tall carved brackets. Further later
extensions southwards.
INTERIOR: the ground floor has been considerably modified in
detail, but many items of original detail remain scattered
through the building. The large room to the right has 2 rough
chamfered transverse beams and a C20 fireplace, and is entered
through the 4-centred doorway from the throughway. In the rear
half is a late C16 chamfered and stopped beam. One room in the
wing has one very large rough chamfered beam and a C19
fireplace. The staircase from ground to first floor is of the
C20. Within the former throughway is a late staircase, and to
the left is a smaller room.
At first floor bedroom 2 includes 2 full-width moulded C16
beams. At the junction between the front range and the wing
the upper stair is a dog-leg with splat balustrade, square
newels and solid string. The main front rooms have plaster
frieze and cornice; bedroom 9 has an exposed wind-braced roof,
with very steep chamfered braces and heavy purlin to run-out
stops, and room 11 a C16 stone fireplace with 4-centred arch.
The wing has a corridor to the W (right) side, crossed by
beams running through from the bedrooms.
HISTORICAL NOTE: these premises, with Nos 8 and 10 (qv) were
rebuilt in the late C16 by a canon resident in the Canonical
House (The Exchequer) on the site of the Town Hall (qv), in
what was then his garden. A small plaque on the front
elevation states that William Penn preached here.
(Town and Country Planning Working Papers: Scrase AJ: Wells: A
Study of Town Origins: Bristol: 1982-).

Listing NGR: ST5501445736

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17553039

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

• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings