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 (also Brown's Gate - aka The Dean's Eye - and The Bishop's Eye), 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?

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Name	Wells Cathedral Precinct
Alternative Names	Penniless Porch; Brown's Gate; The Dean's Eye; The Bishop's Eye
Historic County	Somerset
Civil Parish	Wells
Type	Fortified Ecclesiastical site
Confidence	Certain
Remains	Major
Listed	Grade 1
Scheduled Ancient Monument	Yes
Ordnance Survey Reference	ST551457
Eastings	355150
Northing	145700
Images of England Reference	483442
PastScape Reference
Historic Environment Record	20419

Multi Map

StreetMaps

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-

Antiquarian

• 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

Journals

• Coulson, C., 1982, 'Hierarchism in Conventual Crenellation: An Essay in the Sociology and Metaphysics of Medieval Fortification' Medieval Archaeology Vol26 p69-100 [downloadable via http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/resources.html?medarch]

Primary Sources

• Calendar of Patent Rolls (1281-92) p229
• Calendar of Patent Rolls (1338-40) p466
• Calendar of Patent Rolls (1446-52) p473