White Abbey and section of wall adjoining to east

White Abbey and section of wall adjoining to east

Remains of a Grandmontine Priory, now a farmhouse. Founded by Fulk Fitz Warin III as a house of Arrouaisian Canons between 1221 and 1226, Alberbury Priory was eventually transferred to the Grandmontine Order and became one of only three such houses in England, dependent on the Abbey of Grandmontine in Limousin, France. Like other alien priories, it was seized by Edward III in 1337 during the French wars. The surviving chantries were suppressed in 1547. The priory was converted into a house around 1578 and substantially remodelled in 1857–1858. The site, containing the remains of the priory in a large moated area by the River Severn, was excavated in 1925. No other buildings survive.

The original priory consisted of a nave and square-ended choir with the former Chapel of St Stephen of three bays to the north and the cloisters to the south. The farmhouse incorporates the central section of the church (minus the east and west ends) and the former Chapel of St Stephen.

Construction is of coursed Alberbury breccia and red sandstone rubble with 19th-century red brick. Dressings are of 13th-century red sandstone and 19th-century grey sandstone. The roof is of plain tile with two parallel gabled wings at the rear. The building is two storeys and attic.

The north and centre of the south front have chamfered plinths and parapeted gables with chamfered copings and shaped kneelers. Two 19th-century brick ridge stacks rise to the rear, one with four square shafts and one with a single shaft.

The west (entrance) front features three windows: 19th-century wooden cross-windows with chamfered reveals and returned hoodmoulds, and a 1:2:1 canted bay window to the right with chamfered stone mullions and plain tile roof. The former west doorway to the Chapel of St Stephen to the left has continuous roll moulding and an inserted early 19th-century two-light window with Y-tracery. The central six-panelled door has a fanlight with Y-tracery, a moulded pointed arch with quatrefoil and mouchette panels in the spandrels, and a returned square hoodmould. A blocked first-floor slit window to the internal newel stair lies to the left. The left-hand part of this front is the former west front of the Chapel of St Stephen and the right-hand part is a section through the nave of the former priory church, distinguished by straight joints.

The south (garden) front has 1:2 windows: 19th-century wooden cross-casements with chamfered reveals and returned hoodmoulds, and a one-light attic window in the gable to the left. A probable rear-arch to the former sacristy door at the right has an inserted late 18th- or early 19th-century glazing bar sash with intersecting Gothic tracery. The former doorway to the cloister at the left retains one order of shafts with stiff-leaf capitals (shafts missing), moulded reveals, a triple moulded arch and chamfered inner arch, with an inserted 19th-century two-light Gothic window.

The north front faces the north side of the former chapel and features three buttresses with chamfered offsets. A projecting two-storey stair tower to the right has a rounded squinch over the angle to the left. The blocked east window of the chapel retains one order of shafts with moulded bases and capitals (shafts missing), chamfered reveals and a moulded arch. A short piece of rubblestone walling adjoining the south front to the east forms part of the south wall of the former east end of the church; it includes later brick patching and some reused stones, including part of a moulded arch.

The interior of the former Chapel of St Stephen contains quadripartite stone vaulting with chamfered ribs springing from shafts with moulded capitals (some shafts missing). The carved bosses include one to the east depicting the Agnus Dei, one in the centre with a man's head, and one to the west showing a man devoured by a winged monster. The former east window has nook shafts with moulded capitals and a straight-sided chamfered rear arch. A former double piscina features a moulded trefoiled arch and chamfered cill. The former south doorway into the nave has a continuously-moulded arch and returned hoodmould. A north-east newel stair, probably formerly leading to the space above the vaulting, now leads to the attic. The former chapel now contains an inserted stack and a ceiling with chamfered beams, probably dating to around 1578.