Princethorpe College

Princethorpe College

A convent, now a Roman Catholic school, shown on Ordnance Survey maps as St. Mary Priory. The complex was built for French Benedictine nuns from Montargis and known as St. Mary's Priory, becoming a school in 1965.

The main convent was built in 1833–35 by Craven, with additions to the west and a former mortuary chapel of 1842–43 by Joseph Hansom. The old church, now theatre and classroom, dates from 1835–37 by Craven, with alterations by Hansom completed in 1843. The Nun's Cemetery dates to around 1837–38. The front range, originally a guest house, was built in 1836–40, probably by Hansom. Various late 19th and 20th-century additions have been made throughout.

The buildings are constructed in red brick with slate roofs and brick stacks, arranged around a large irregular courtyard. The styles vary across the complex; structures range from one to three storeys.

The former Guest House forms an E-plan in simple Tudor Gothic style, with two storeys and a symmetrical front of five bays (1:1:1:1:1). The symmetrical front features a gabled projecting centre with octagonal clasping buttresses rising into castellated turrets, treated as a gatehouse. The centre has a moulded arched doorway with hood mould, Gothic panelled double-leaf doors, and a traceried overlight. Throughout, sashes have gauged brick flat arches. The wings have tripartite sashes beneath shallow gables with cornices, moulded kneelers, and slit lancets. The Guest House has a painted rendered plinth, moulded string course and cornice, and coped gable parapets with stone dressings. Inside, there is a spacious scrolled string quarter-turn staircase with stick balusters.

The Old Church is built in English bond brick with moulded L-cornice and stone dressings. The roof has stone-coped gable parapets and moulded kneelers. The original plan comprised a nave, shallow chancel, east chapel, and south (ritually east) bell turret. The nave has six bays, the chancel two bays. A three-light south window has a transom and geometrical tracery with hood mould. A moulded stone string course runs across the gable. The kneelers have pyramid finials. The square turret has a moulded stone sill course, attached shafts, nailhead cornice, and panelled pinnacles. Y-tracery bell openings have hood moulds, with a clock on the east side. Tracery is probably by Hansom.

The south front has a mid-19th-century single-storey five-bay range with twin hipped roofs and 16-pane sashes. The west side has windows with cusped Y-tracery, though the lower parts are altered, with a small chancel lancet. The east side is much altered. The interior is subdivided horizontally. The upper room has a very elaborate Perpendicular-style roof with bosses, of plaster grained in imitation of wood. The chancel has simple vaulting. Some original stained glass remains. The north wall has a large late 19th-century mural of the Martyrdom of St. Benedict.

The Nun's Cemetery is a small circular cloister in brick with moulded brick plinth and dentil cornice. The doorway has a rendered Neo-Norman arch and tympanum with dog-tooth and hood mould, with studded double-leaf doors in a slightly widened opening. A similar blind window is present. The centre is said to have pointed arches.

The north range has three storeys with projecting gabled centre and end bays (bays: 1:6:3:4:1). Gable parapets are stone-coped. Sashes have gauged brick flat arches. The end bays feature four-light wood mullioned and transomed windows with glazing bars to upper floors; the right end has a tripartite sash to ground floor.

The former mortuary chapel has a Neo-Norman plaster-vaulted interior with three bays and an apse. Quadripartite vaulting features wall shafts and waterleaf capitals; the apse vaulting has capitals only. The apse arch and doorways have zigzag mouldings. Doorways are decorated with scalloped capitals and tympana with ballflower ornament. Wide cloister corridors have simple Gothic detailing and terracotta floors.