Haverholme Priory

This is a fragment of a ruined country house, built in the Tudor style in 1835 by H. E. Kendall. The house is constructed of red brick entirely faced with limestone ashlar, although the roofs have collapsed. Three octagonal chimney stacks remain, with roll moulded bases and embattled tops.

What remains is a four-bay, two-storey front, with an advanced central bay. To the right, a flanking wall terminates in an octagonal tower. Architectural details include a moulded plinth, chamfered and moulded string courses, embattled parapets, and slender angle towers to the centrepiece. The main entrance features a four-centred Tudor arched head with a moulded surround and leaf and rose decoration to the spandrels. It is fitted with a pair of half-glazed doors featuring Tudor-style glazing bars, blank panelled bases, and a moulded string course above, along with a fretted parapet. The inner doorway is moulded and pointed, with a collapsed, ribbed vault in the porch. Single fixed sidelights are also present. A single two-light window with four-centred arched heads and a moulded transom is located to the left of the entrance. To the right are two single windows and a two-light window, with a shield displaying the arms of St. Gilbert of Sempringham. The first floor features a pair of two-light windows above the porch, with three single-light windows to the right. The second storey of the centrepiece contains a further pair of matching two-light windows. The upper stages of the right-hand tower have single-light windows facing alternating directions; an octagonal stair turret, also embattled, is situated in the inner angle. All windows have deeply chamfered rectangular surrounds, moulded Tudor arched heads, sunk spandrels, and roll moulded mullions.

The rear of the building is entirely of red brick, and straight joints suggest that elements of a house built around 1780 may have been incorporated during the 1835 reconstruction. The interior is much reduced with collapsed floors. Fragments of Tudoresque plasterwork remain, consisting of full-height arched blank panels in the hall. Some shutters are still present, and doors and windows have bald, roll moulded wooden architraves. Dark green painted plaster finish remains exposed in the ground-floor chamber of the tower.

The site was originally the location of a Gilbertine priory founded in 1139, followed by a house built in the Gothick taste in the 1780s. It served as the seat of the Finch Hatton family, Earls of Winchelsea and Nottingham, and is referenced in the book "Out of Africa".