The Bishop's Palace and Gardens

The Bishop’s Palace stands beside Wells Cathedral in Somerset. Built in the early thirteenth century for the bishops of Bath and Wells, it has been a residence for nearly eight hundred years. The oldest parts date from around 1210, when Bishop Jocelin began the work, and the great hall and chapel were added between 1275 and 1292 by Bishop Robert Burnell. Fourteenth-century bishops enclosed the site with five-metre crenellated walls and a moat fed by diverted springs. The gatehouse, built in 1341, still carries a working drawbridge and defensive machinery. The palace shows how bishops shaped Wells through building and conflict. Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury surrounded himself with high walls and a moat because of disputes with townspeople and fears of attack. Bishop Thomas Beckington added the Bishop’s House in the fifteenth century, later enlarged by Benjamin Ferrey in the 1840s. The great hall was pulled down in the 1830s and turned into a landscaped ruin by Bishop George Henry Law, who also created a reflecting pond. The palace has served as a prison, garrison and film set, including scenes for Hot Fuzz and Poldark. Visitors walk through the medieval undercroft and vaulted rooms, then enter the chapel with its oak-leaf bosses and restored stained glass. The long gallery and Bishop’s House remain in use, while the croquet lawn and café overlook the moat and cathedral spires. The palace’s outer gate, the Bishop’s Eye, opens from the market place into the walled precinct. Inside, one of the two surviving Glastonbury chairs recalls the trials of the last abbot of Glastonbury during the Dissolution.