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Bishop
Bekynton (1443 - 1465) was a good bishop, a distinguished
diplomat and a prolific builder. He was first tutor,
then secretary of state to King Henry VI, acted as his
ambassador and travelled widely. For the king he oversaw
the building of Eton College and was one of the founders
of Lincoln College Oxford.
In Wells, among his works, Bekynton built all four gateways
still in use, houses along the market place, almshouses
for the poor and a complete water system for the city,
piped underground from the wells in his palace garden.
He even left money in his will to heighten the chimneys
in Vicars' Close so that the smoke from winter fires
could be carried far into the sky and not affect the
men's voices. He left to posterity his striking "memento
mori" tomb which he had built fifteen years before
he died.
The cloisters, first constructed in the 1200s were extensively
remodelled in the 1400s. Bishop Bubwith left money in
his will for a library to be built above the east cloister;
Bekynton had a hand in the west cloister rebuild which
was finished in the time of his successor Bishop Stillington,
with a grammar school in place above. |
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