Well it’s Thursday Doors in Wells

Last week MrB and I were in Somerset and we thought we’d take a closer look at the stunning Wells Cathedral. If you haven’t been then do go as I think they are right in describing it as one of the most beautiful in England. I’ll be sharing the Cathedral’s beauty on Monday but today I wanted to focus on one of its doors.

It had taken us a while to stroll around the cloister as it is stunning. In fact it was probably an aesthetic addition to the cathedral as Wells was never a monastic establishment and so didn’t require a cloister. As well as being large the cloister is also unusual as it has no northern section. However having said that I have since learnt in preparing this post that Chichester’s cloister is the same and given Chichester is also secular perhaps it reflects these cloisters were not a working part of the building.

It was in the east cloister we found this door into Camery Garden. There were quite a few doors in the east cloister, but I couldn’t resist this one as the sunlight was pouring through from the garden. I’ve been unable to find anything on why it is called Camery Garden, the Wells Cathedral’s website only mentions the gardens in passing ‘A glimpse through the opening in the east cloister wall to the Camery garden shows the foundations of a large, late 15th century Lady Chapel, built by Bishop Stillington(1466-91) partly to house his own tomb. It was removed during the Reformation using gunpowder.’ The cloisters were built in the 13th century and underwent  rebuilding in the 15th century, this door however looks quite modern to me.

Friends of Wells Cathedral sponsored a project to make this exit more accessible and so perhaps the door was replaced then. On the beautiful sunny day we were visited we were certainly tempted to spend a while in the garden. However as we had yet to walk round the cathedral we resisted the temptation! I’m hoping though you won’t resist the temptation to visit Norm, he might be taking a short break but his Thursday Doors continues.