Wells
England ’s smallest Cathedral City and one of its finest. Dominated by its magnificent Cathedral, Wells is a quaint market town that manages to retain much of its medieval charm.
Wells is an attractive and central town for the surrounding Mendip Hills. Though it is laid out to a medieval town plan, it has an air of cosmopolitan prosperity with a bustling market square of old cobbled stone set beside the Cathedral and Bishop’s Palace, home to the Bishop of Bath and Wells, historically, a powerful figure in the Church.
Wells takes its name from the Wells of St Andrew sacred underground springs located by the Bishops Palace beside the Cathedral, and has prospered as a centre for the wool trade and a spiritual centre throughout the Middle Ages.
The Cathedral is one of the best surviving examples of a cathedral complex in Britain, with church, chapel and cloisters all intact. Within the Cathedral Precinct behind defensive Walls and surrounded by a moat is the Bishops Palace and on the other side of the Cathedral is the Vicar’s Close, 14th Century lodgings built for the Cathedral Choir and one of the oldest complete streets in Europe.
Wells’ Cathedral is simply stunning, one of England’s finest, dating from 1175 to 1508. The West Front features life size medieval statues of 300 kings, knights and saints and the interiors are a fabulous mix of delicate rib vaulting, scissor arches and medieval corbels. The Chapter House is renowned for its curving flight of steps laid around 1290 and the elaborately decorated Chain Gate leading onto the Vicar’s Close is another unique feature. The Cathedral boasts a 14th Century Mechanical Clock, the second oldest in England.
Across the Cathedral Close is the Wells Museum housing prehistoric finds from the area and the splendid moated 13th Century Bishop’s Palace. It is claimed that the Palace is the oldest inhabited building in England and it has fine Italian Gothic state rooms. Outside, the moat, which is fed by the town’s springs, is home to a host of ducks and swans, which have cleverly learned the trick of ringing the bell by the gatehouse when they wish to be fed!
