THE historic Vicars’ Close in Wells, Somerset — home to a lot of the cathedral lay staff — has been awarded £4.4 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to handle a backlog of urgent repairs.
The Close and five places of worship are to receive a share of £7.4 million from the Fund, it was announced on Tuesday. Wells Cathedral has already raised £1 million in donations to contribute to the restoration project. There is one other £1.6 million still to be raised.
Vicars’ Close is described because the “most complete and constantly occupied medieval street” in Europe. It incorporates 30 Grade-I listed residencies, inbuilt the early fifteenth century to deal with the cathedral’s adult choir, the Vicars’ Choral. The buildings proceed to deal with adult choir members and their families, alongside cathedral vergers, staff, and, more recently, a handful of personal tenants.
In 2022, the culture on the cathedral, including within the Close, was widely criticised in a report by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), which independently audited safeguarding practice in Church of England cathedrals (News, 18 March 2022). The former Dean of Wells, the Very Revd John Davies, retired the next January with immediate effect, aged 65 (News, 13 January 2023). A special visitation had been carried out the previous September.
The Chapter had commissioned the SCIE audit within the expressed belief that “Wells Cathedral will profit from external scrutiny by measuring ourselves against current best practice on this vital area.” The auditors concluded that the culture for the 75 cathedral staff and 400 volunteers, on the time, was one in all “unhappiness and fear”, and that there was an influence imbalance.
Vicars’ Close, where there was reported to be “little privacy”, was seen by the auditors to boost several issues when it comes to culture, and to “sound uncomfortably near being a closed community”.
The auditors reported that an absence of “strategic and operational oversight of safeguarding of the cathedral’s own staff, and challenge of hypercritical or punitive practice” — described as “unacceptable” and “starting to cascade downwards from other managers, causing an extension of this culture” — was compounded by having staff living in close quarters.
“The issue of Vicars’ Close was discussed several times in the course of the audit, and it was hard to envisage a viable solution. At present the terms on which individuals live there creates dependency which then risks subtly infantilising people until they act out their feelings in a way that isn’t adult.”
The auditors reflected that it is likely to be possible to create, over time, a more mixed economy, where staff houses were interspersed with privately rented houses whose occupants had no skilled reference to the cathedral.
The latest Dean of Wells, the Very Revd Toby Wright, who was installed in June, said in an announcement to the Church Times on Tuesday: “On the publication of the SCIE report, the cathedral immediately took on board the recommendations and put an motion plan in place to handle them, including those raised about Vicars’ Close, and Bishop Michael signed off the finished actions in May this 12 months.
“A latest culture is being built with positivity and hope, and this has already had significant impact. The Chapter recognise the vital role of ensuring Vicars’ Close isn’t a closed environment, and are working in close collaboration with the much-valued residents, each those that work throughout the Cathedral and those that rent the properties, to not only improve their living conditions and conserve these exceptional buildings, but to fuel the imagination of the general public and open up this historic gem to all.”
The conservation plans have been drawn up by the cathedral in partnership with Somerset Council, Historic England, Society for Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), the Georgian Group and the Victorian Society.
Each of the residential properties within the Close is to be restored, including re-roofing, latest insulation, drainage improvements to forestall water damage, wall conservation, and exterior joinery repairs.
No. 27 is to be made right into a everlasting visitor centre, while 12, 22, and Vicars’ Hall are to be opened to the general public all 12 months round, for the primary time. The gardens of 12 and 22 are to be redesigned “with medieval inspiration and using the newest research to analyze the horticulture of the high and late Middle Ages”, a cathedral press release said.
As well as restoring the Close, the funds will likely be used support a three-year programme of events, activities, and community outreach, including temporary exhibitions, an oral-history project, artist residencies, and a musical outreach programme.
Other awards from this tranche of funding are:
- £579,000 for St Peter’s, Forncett, to repair its Saxon round tower, which dates back to the 12 months 1000;
- £587,000 for the Heart of the Headland project at St Hilda’s, Hartlepool, to remove the constructing from Historic England’s At Risk register;
- £965,000 for St Mary’s, Totnes, to stabilise the Grade-I listed constructing and supply training;
- £618,000 for St Osyth Priory and Parish Trust, near Clacton-on-Sea, also to remove the constructing from the ‘At Risk’ register;
- and greater than £145,000 for St Andrew’s Althorne PCC, in Chelmsford, to stabilise and repair the medieval Grade-II listed church.
