De Vaux House is standing archaeology. Founded in 1261 by Bishop Giles Bridport, the College de Valle remained a college until the Dissolution.
The wonder is the left-hand door. Probably made in the fifteenth century, it endured while the house was altered and re-fronted. Its cusped Gothic panels retain the touch of the medieval craftsman: practical joinery transformed into tracery, foliage and miniature architecture. Every worn board and softened moulding records centuries of people passing through.
Above it, a fourteenth- or fifteenth-century carved angel displays a coat of arms. Nearby, the sun-shaped plaque is a fire-insurance mark - another historical layer attached to a building that wears its long life upon its sleeve.
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