Priory Farmhouse

Priory Farmhouse is a house of early 15th-century origin, significantly developed and modified over subsequent centuries. It stands on the west side of Bixhill Lane at Shustoke.

The building began as an early 15th-century cruck-built open hall. A west cross-wing was added in the later 15th century, followed by an east cross-wing dated 1620 (marked by a sandstone panel reset in the front gable). A service wing was added to the rear of the west cross-wing in the late 17th century. In the late 18th or early 19th century, much of the timber-frame was replaced or cased in red brick. The original three-bay open hall plan possibly extended further west; the later additions created an H-shaped plan.

Externally, the structure displays late 18th and early 19th-century red brick casing over earlier timber-framing, with a plain-tiled roof. There is an inserted ridge stack of sandstone to the open hall with brick above the ridge. Side stacks serve the parlour cross-wing and the later 17th-century rear extension. The open hall section rises one storey with attic accommodation, lit by two 19th-century gable dormers. A doorway to the cross-passage lies at the rear of the stack. A segmental arch frames a ground-floor 3-light casement. The west cross-wing is two storeys, featuring a flush-frame casement in open boxing at first floor and a 3-light wood casement in a segmental arch at ground floor. The east cross-wing (dated 1620) displays a now-blocked lunette in its gable and larger lunettes with glazing at first and ground floors. The exposed framing on the east side wall shows characteristically small framing of three panels in height, contrasting with the larger framing visible in the former west gable of the open hall (now internal).

Internally, the open hall contains base crucks of early 15th-century date arranged in three structural bays. At ground-floor level the blades are concealed; at first floor, the display truss shows evidence of 2-centred arch bracing to the collar. The arcade plate carries 2 roll-mouldings. The partition wall at the west end features large framed panels with tension bracing in two heights. The roof timbers are substantially intact, smoke-blackened from the original open-hearth use. Rafters are halved and pegged at the apex with generally smaller scantlings than the 17th-century portions. There is no ridge piece. Two tiers of purlins are tenoned to the principals, with curved and paired wind bracing throughout. At ground floor, an inglenook hearth is spanned by a moulded main beam supporting the ceiling. The cross-passage at the rear of the inglenook may occupy the site of the original cross-passage. The west cross-wing spans two bays and retains an original ceiling at ground floor; its roof mirrors that of the open hall with purlins tenoned to principals and paired, curved wind bracing. The 1620 cross-wing, also of two bays, was probably originally a service range at the low end of the hall. Its roof is of through-purlin type, trenched over the rafters' backs, with ridge piece and wind bracing. The late 17th-century rear wing to the west cross-wing displays Queen struts to its through-purlin roof and was originally open to the roof at first floor, heated by an inglenook of coursed and square sandstone.