Wells Cathedral Precinct

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Penniless Porch

In the civil parish of Wells.
In the historic county of Somerset (Modern Authority of Somerset, 1974 county of Somerset).

Licence to crenellate issued 1286, "to enclose the churchyard of the cathedral church of Wells and the precinct of the canons' houses in the city with a stone wall, and to crenellate the same for their better security, making sufficient gates and posterns, to be opened at dawn." Clearly expressed as a defence against thieves rather than military or even as a status symbol. A further licence of 1340 for the bishops palace and the close required the gates and posterns to be open for thoroughfare from dawn till night. A further licence of 1451 gives licence to execute the provisions of the previous licence not hitherto executed, which seems to be the whole previous provision. Since the bishops palace was completed by this time this presumable reference to the close around the cathedral of which there are several gates surviving, most notably the Penniless Porch of about 1450, which is a clear expression of the status of the Cathedral. Were the earlier licences acted on and the 1451 repeat an excuse to build new finer buildings?

This site has been described as a;
Fortified Ecclesiastical site.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Major remains.

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1286 March 15.
A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1340 March 29.
A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1451 March 22.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is ST551457

Modern Map from Good for landscape form and features	Modern Map from Good for general location
Air Photo from	1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

• Web site links
  • http://www.hearthside.co.uk/Wells/precinct.htm
• Books
  • Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p105, 108, 257
    Pevsner, N, 1958, Building of England; North Somerset and Bristol p311-
• Journal Articles
  • Coulson, C., 1982, 'Hierarchism in Conventual Crenellation: An Essay in the Sociology and Metaphysics of Medieval Fortification' Medieval Archaeology Vol26 p69-100
• Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
  • Calendar of Patent Rolls (1281-92) p229
    Calendar of Patent Rolls (1338-40) p466
    Calendar of Patent Rolls (1446-52) p473
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • William Camden, 1607, Britannia [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/dorseteng.html#somerset20]
    Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p413