Vicars' Close ~ Wells

With 2 PiPs.

On 30 December 1348, Bishop Ralph made over to the vicars ‘the dwellings newly built and to be erected for the use of the vicars’. The houses were built in two rows running north from the Hall, and were completed by the time of Bishop Ralph’s death in 1363. The quadrangle was finally completed with the building of the Chapel at the north end in the early fifteenth century.

The towering chimney shafts, which are such a delightful feature of the Close, were built to extend the original chimneys possibly because the Vicars were beginning to burn coal instead of wood and taller chimneys were needed to carry away the more pungent smoke.