Details
ST04SW OLD CLEEVE CP
CHAPEL CLEEVE
1/66 Chapel Cleeve Hotel, balustrade
flanking entrance steps and East
wall terminating terrace marked
by 2 steps fronting facade
22.5.69
GV II*
Remains of pilgrim's hospice attached to chapel, enlarged as country house, now hotel. 1452-5, enlarged 1818-23,
refronted and enlarged 1913-4. Early C19 work by Richard Carver, early C20 plasterwork decoration by George Percy
Bankart. Squared and coursed blue lias plinth, roughcast over rubble with Bath stone quoins and dressings, string
course, hipped slate roof behind parapets, coped verges to gable ends, roughcast stacks. Plan: South facing, gabled
full height porch with left (West) early C20 reception rooms linked by long gallery style corridor on North front,
right (East) 5 bays of early C19 house with original central octagonal entrance hall, and cantilevered stair behind
with "L"-plan remains of Medieval hostelry incorporated in North East wing. Tudor style. 2 storeys, 2:3:1:2:1:2 bays
all Tudor arch headed lights in mullioned and transomed windows, end bays left breaking forward with 2 x 5-light
windows, gabled tops with blank panels, other 2 x 3 and 4-light windows with single storey canted end bay right of 2 x
6-lights, gabled top to third bay right breaking forward slightly, centre full height gabled porch, date stone 1914
gable end, 2 x 5-light oriel, corbelled base with coat of arms above 4-centred arch dorway with double doors approached
by flight of steps with curving Bath stone handrail, square piers with stone lattice work returned to 2 steps that form
the terrace fronting the house between projecting end 2-bays left and low wall of similar design end right. Right
return, setback projecting North East wing terminating in crenellated polygonal stair turret with other remains of
early C19 work. Remains of Medieval hostelry on rear elevation: squared and coursed blue lias, red sandstone relieving
arches, 2 storeys with later inserted attic, gabled end bay right, coped verges, mullioned and transomed arched window
below hood mould, top of similar window reset as dormer left with 2 cinquefoil-headed windows below groundfloor
separated by string course, 2 arched window openings right under hood moulds with blocked entrance beside, long
mullioned and transomed cinquefoil-headed window centre with small arched window beside arched door way left. A single
storey length of wall to East contains 4-centred moulded arch opening, possibly to courtyard which might have been
formed by parallel gabled wing to East running North-South. Interior: 3 bays of arch braced roof with remains of 2
tiers of wind bracing, wallplate and chamfered beams with step and runout stops in North East wing; early C19 Gothick
panelling, moulded cornices and wrought iron cantilevered stair with elegant plasterwork decoration on stair lantern;
especially good Arts and Crafts style plasterwork decoration by Bankart including overmantels, an imported early C17
carved overmantel from Taunton in the early C20 West wing. The Chapel of St Mary was built to hold a sacred image of
the Virgin that had survived the destruction of an earlier chapel to the North on the cliffs at Blue Anchor. No trace
remains of the chapel which stood to the North of the hospice for pilgrims to the shrine. (Pevsner, Buildings of
England, South and West Somerset, 1958 VCH Somerset, Vol 5, forthcoming; VAG Report, unpublished SRO, 1981; Photograph
in NMR).
Listing NGR: ST0355542989
