12 Church Plain, Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk. NR23 1EQ - Blue Plaques on Waymarking.com

This building was here in at least 1780 as around this date it was in use as the Six [Eight] Ringers public house. This use continued until c1970 when it was converted into flats.

It has an unusual shape being three bays wide on the church Plain elevation with a 45° angled cut-off before the back entrance lane. There are three upper storey dormers, one in the angle, all with sixteen-pane casements, ogee scroll barge boards, and original stone cills larger than the openings, the windows having been replaced with smaller width ones. All the dormers hang forward of the walls. The ground floor windows are a mix, that on the angle a sixteen-pane as the upper floor ones, the two on the front are eight pane with the central four panes on a sash, the outer four panes fixed. The entrance door is four panelled, probably modern, with a four-pane light over. As in most of the rest of the street the brick walls have been rendered.

The naming of pubs near churches with rings of bells was quite usual and this being the Eight Ringers would indicate that there is a ring of eight in St.Nicholas' Church across the road at the end of Church Plain. This is the case as after the church suffered severe fire damage in 1879 a new ring of eight was installed in 1890. In the Wells and Warham Award of 1813 following the Enclosure Act of 1811, it is listed as "The Six Ringers".

A Plaque on the corner angle of the building has been placed here to commemorate the pub name by the Wells Local History Group. According to the Group's web site there were around 45 public houses and gin palaces in Wells in 1888, some of these are commemorated, as this one, with Blue Plaques.

A few words from the Wells Local History Group web pages, the rest from my own on site observations.

Blue Plaque managing agency: Wells Local History Group Individual Recognized: The use of the building as the Eight Ringers public house. Physical Address: 12 Church Plain Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk UK NR23 1EQ Web Address: Not listed

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