page_title: Vicars' Close, Wells
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Vicars' Close, Wells / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: 1 - 13 Vicars CloseThis is a photo of listed building number 1383197.
context_page_description: Vicars' Close, in Wells, Somerset, England, is claimed to be the oldest purely residential street with original buildings surviving intact in Europe.John Julius Norwich called it "that rarest of survivals, a planned street of the mid-14th century". It comprises numerous Grade I listed buildings,
  comprising 27 residences, built for Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury, a chapel and library at the north end, and a hall at the south end, over an arched gate. It is connected at its southern end to the cathedral by way of a walkway over Chain Gate.
  The Close is about 460 feet long, and paved with setts. Its width is tapered by 10 feet to make it look longer when viewed from the main entrance nearest the cathedral. When viewed from the other end it looks shorter. By the nineteenth century the buildings were reported to be in a poor state of repair, and part of the hall was being used as a malt house. Repairs have since been carried out including the construction of Shrewsbury House to replace buildings damaged in a fire.
  The Vicars' Hall was completed in 1348 and included a communal dining room, administrative offices and treasury of the Vicars Choral.
context_section_description: The Close owes its origins to a grant of land and buildings by Walter de Hulle, a canon of Wells Cathedral, for the purpose of accommodating chantry priests; however the land is likely to have been used for a long period before the construction of the close, as prehistoric flint flakes and Romano-British pottery shards were recovered from the garden of number four during work to construct an extension.
  Bishop Jocelin styled the priests serving the cathedral as the Vicars Choral, in the 12th century, their duty being to chant divine service eight times a day. Previously they had lived throughout the town, and Bishop Ralph resolved to incorporate them and provide subsistence for the future. The Vicars Choral were assigned annuities from his lands and tenements in Congresbury and Wookey, an annual fee from the vicarage of Chew, and endowed them with lands obtained from the Feoffees of Walter de Hulle.
  The residences he built became known as the College, or Close of the Vicars.
caption: Numbers 1 to 13
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