Photo: Ian Knox (CC BY-SA 2.0)
A self-guided audio tour of Wells, a town that was always two communities, the townspeople and the clergy. It starts at St Cuthbert's, the townspeople's church, often mistaken for the cathedral, and the Market Place, where Judge Jeffreys tried some five hundred prisoners in 1685 and Bishop Bekynton's water still runs down the High Street gutters. Through his Penniless Porch to the west front, with about 300 medieval statues, then inside to William Joy's scissor arches of 1338 to 1348 and the clock of about 1390, whose knights joust every quarter-hour. Up the worn chapter house steps to the Chain Gate, Vicars' Hall and Vicars' Close, built for the cathedral's singers in the fourteenth century, and Herbert Balch's museum. The walk ends through the Bishop's Eye at the moated Bishop's Palace, where the swans ring a bell for food, the springs at St Andrew's Well, and the fifteenth-century Bishop's Barn.
13 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 26 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 9 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
St Cuthbert's Church, Market Place, Penniless Porch, The West Front, The Nave and the Scissor Arches.
The Wells Clock and the Chapter House Steps, The Chain Gate and the Vicars' Hall, Vicars' Close, Wells Museum.
The Bishop's Eye, The Bishop's Palace and its moat, St Andrew's Well, The Bishop's Barn.
A thirteenth-century sculptural screen, broader than the nave, with about 300 original medieval statues.
The X-shaped arches William Joy put in between 1338 and 1348 to brace the cracking crossing tower.
A clock face of about 1390 with jousting knights, and the worn steps to the palm-tree vault of the chapter house.
Two rows of houses built for the Vicars Choral from 1348, often described as the oldest lived-in street in Europe.
The bishops' palace inside its fourteenth-century moat, where the swans ring a bell on the gatehouse for food.
The springs that give Wells its name, beside which the first minster was built.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 13 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 13 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Wells — England's Smallest Cathedral City, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
13 narration points, including St Cuthbert's Church, Market Place, Penniless Porch, The West Front and The Nave and the Scissor Arches. That is about 24 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~2½ hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 13 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.