‘if We Don’t Look After This Treasure, We’re Going To Lose It’: The Fight To Restore One Of The Uk’s Most Historic Streets

Home to choir singers for 650 years, Grade-1 listed Vicar’s Close by Wells Cathedral is in need of funding to keep its medieval houses liveable – and its unique history alive

Choir singers have lived in two handsome terraces of silvery-pink-stoned medieval houses beside Wells Cathedral for more than 650 years. But the gated close – which is thought to be the most complete and continuously occupied medieval street in Europe – is now in desperate need of restoration.

“It’s a privilege to live here – it’s a unique place,” says Matthew Minter, 52, who has lived in the close for almost seven years and sings in the cathedral. “But [the house] is cold. The windows leak £10 notes every time you put the heating on… and the roof leaks actual water.”