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Wells (City in Somerset England)

a city in Somerset, England; at the foot of the Mendip Hills; 20 miles S. W. of Bath and 20 miles S. of Bristol.

Here, near St. Andrew's Well, from which and other springs the place took its name, King Ina in 1704 established a house of secular canons; but the see was first founded in 909 by Edward the Elder, and the city has grown up round the cathedral. The see was translated to Bath during the first half of the 12th century, and still is styled Bath and Wells, though Bath's connection has been purely titular since the Reformation. to WELLS Among its 70 bishops have been Jocelin (1206-1242), the "second founder" of the cathedral, Fox, Wolsey, Barlow, Laud, and Ken. That cathedral, though one of the smallest yet perhaps the most beautiful of English cathedrals, is mainly Early English in style, and is 371 feet long, by 123 across the transept, while the height of the central tower is 160 feet, of the two W. towers 130. Other buildings, all of extreme interest, are the moated episcopal palace, with an undercrypt of about 1220; the deanery, rebuilt by Dean Gunthorpe in the reign of Edward IV.; the archdeaconry, now remodeled as a theological college; the gateways and St. Cuthbert's Church, with a noble W. tower. It was chartered by King John in 1202. Pop. about 5,000.