Thurgarton Priory

Thurgarton Priory is a house, now a research centre for Boots plc, built on the site of a monastery founded around 1119–39 by Ralph de Ayncourt for canons of the order of St Augustine. The priory was dissolved in 1534 and acquired in 1539 by William Cooper, who reconstructed the monastic remains as a residence. The building was fortified for Charles I in 1643 and largely rebuilt in 1777 for John Gilbert Cooper. Between 1884 and 1904 it served as a palace for the first Bishop of Southwell.

The principal 1777 house is constructed of red brick with ashlar dressings and features a hipped slate roof with 2 lateral and 2 ridge red brick stacks. The building displays two and a half storeys across 5 bays with a moulded cornice and moulded pediment over a single central projecting bay. An ashlar plinth runs beneath, with ground and first floor sill bands and a first floor band visible across the facade. Ground and first floor sill bands and a first floor band mark the elevation.

The entrance is emphasised by a 19th-century closed porch with a moulded pediment, containing a panelled door with decorative glazing bar overlight, flanked by single pilasters. The side walls each feature a single arched sash with moulded architrave and continuous impost and sill bands. An inner panelled double door with fanlight is flanked by single arched glazing bar sashes with moulded architrave and continuous impost band. To either side are 2 glazing bar sashes with flush wedge brick lintels. Above these sits a single central Venetian-style window with a central arched glazing bar sash with moulded architrave and continuous impost bands, flanked by single glazing bar sashes with flush wedge brick lintels. The top floor contains a single central Diocletian glazing bar sash window with 2 small glazing bar sashes to either side, the immediately left being a Yorkshire sash. All have flush wedge brick lintels.

Two 19th-century red brick extensions with hipped slate roofs project to the left and right of the main block, each of one and a half storeys and 2 bays. The left wing, built over the foundations of the south west tower of the church (listed separately), sits on an ashlar plinth with a moulded cornice and 2 red brick stacks. The right bay has a first floor band and ground floor sill band; the left bay projects with a continuous ground floor sill band. This wing contains a single arched panel with an arched sash with lateral glazing bars and a single glazing bar sash to the left, above which is a single oeil de boeuf with decorative glazing bars and moulded surround. The right wing corresponds in character but features a doorway with panelled door and fanlight in place of the arched sash, and a single stack. A small 20th-century single storey red brick wing projects from the right.

Further right is an additional red brick wing with hipped slate roof, single red brick stack, and brick plinth. This comprises one and a half storeys across 4 bays, with a projecting bay topped by a brick pediment containing a single blind window. Set back to the right is a similar blind window, and further right a single small casement; to the left set back is a single glazing bar sash. The pediment features a round arched opening with moulded surround. To the far right is a dressed coursed rubble brick and slate single storey wing of 2 bays, the right bay being lower with a hipped roof set over a stream, containing 2 red brick arches with a single central brick cutwater.

The rear of the 1777 build shows a central two and a half storey projecting polygonal bay containing 3 glazed double doors with overlights, flanked by 2 glazing bar sashes on either side. Above are 7 similar sashes, with 7 small glazing bar sashes on the top floor. All openings have flush wedge brick lintels. To the left and right are one and a half storey, 2 bay 19th-century wings set on ashlar plinths with ground floor sill bands. The outer bays project, and each wing contains 2 glazing bar sashes with 2 similar sashes above. The right wing inner bay features a slightly projecting single storey porch with an arched glazing bar door flanked by single fixed lights, with single pilasters rising from the sill and a parapet above. All windows have flush wedge brick lintels. Further right is the church; to the left set back is a later 2 storey, 4 bay wing with doorways and glazing bar sashes; further left is a single storey 5 bay wing with altered openings.

The interior contains a 13th-century undercroft of the west range of the cloister comprising 5 bays in double width with circular columns and moulded capitals to the arcade and quadripartite vaulting. A dogleg staircase features stick balusters, carved tread ends, and decorated cornice. Two contemporary decorative fireplaces are preserved: one of marble and wood, the other of marble with blue John inlay. This room also features a decorative cornice with dado, ceiling and chair rail with panelling beneath, and doorcases.