The Priory

The Priory

A substantial two to three-storey house of medieval and post-medieval origin, incorporating fabric from the 14th century onwards. The building comprises a hall range with cross passage and projecting porch, a cross wing to the west, a 16th or 17th-century chamber block to the north, and a 20th-century brick kitchen addition to the east.

The main structure is built of red sandstone ashlar with light-coloured stone dressings to the principal south elevation. Other elevations employ roughly-squared, coursed lias stone with red sandstone plinth and dressings. The roof is of clay tiles with rebuilt brick stacks set diagonally, though some brick refacing has been applied to the east end of the hall block and the 20th-century kitchen addition.

The principal south elevation is of four bays, with the first and third bays formed by the gabled ends of the west wing and cross passage porch respectively, both featuring moulded finials and skewbacks. A tall central gabled dormer rises from the main hall block, also with moulded finials. The windows have ovolo-moulded mullions, with those to ground and first floors being 20th-century replacements with transoms to ground floor. A moulded string course forms hood moulds to the ground floor windows, with hood moulds appearing elsewhere.

The porch entrance is particularly fine, featuring a late 15th or early 16th-century four-centred moulded arch resting on moulded capitals, the moulding continuing down the jambs to splayed stops. The soffit and jambs are panelled, and a hood-mould with large moulded square stops crowns the opening. The doorway itself has a moulded four-centred arch under a square head with sunk spandrels and is fitted with a 16th-century oak door of vertical panels. A large external stack that formerly stood to the right of the porch was removed in the 1930s to create a garage; this has since been replaced by a modern mullioned and transomed window to match. The 20th-century kitchen addition to this side is half-timbered.

The west front is similar in character to the south elevation, with hood-moulds throughout and a square-headed doorway near the centre, its hood cut away.

The north elevation reveals the building's evolution, comprising the gable end of the western cross wing; two bays of the 17th-century chamber block; the gable end of the cross passage; and the re-clad eastern end of the hall block, which features an external brick chimney rising to a hexagonal stack. Two timber-framed gables surmount the chamber block above a long five-light timber mullioned window on the east side, matching a six-light ovolo-moulded stone mullioned window below. Access to the cross passage is provided by a doorway with a four-centred head similar to that on the south elevation, with a two-light window bearing a hood-mould above.

The interior demonstrates an evolved plan, with the main elements of hall, cross passage, west wing and chamber block remaining discernible. A cellar, almost certainly created from a former additional storey on the north and west through later landscaping, is accessed by stairs in the chamber block. The cellar retains a late 16th or early 17th-century Tudor-arched fireplace and fragments of stonework including a shaped corbel and a corbel with a grotesque mask, likely derived from the former Priory to the west.

The earliest in-situ fabric is the timber-framed east wall of the cross passage, dated to the late 14th or early 15th century on stylistic grounds. This comprises heavily jowled posts to either end supporting a mid-rail and tie-beam with a prick post and curved braces to either side. Former openings for a pair of doors are visible in the centre of the wall.

Throughout the house, fittings document major periods of refurbishment in the 16th, 17th and early 20th centuries. These include stone Tudor-arched doorways; stone chimneypieces with flat-moulded heads carried down the jambs to splayed stops; chamfered transverse beams to the ground floor, some with ogee stops and others with run-outs; and plank doors. The 1930s refurbishment is reflected in Arts and Crafts blind arcading and a copper hood to the fireplace in the ground floor of the west wing, together with eared-architraves to some doors and window furniture to the casements.

A fine 17th-century stair survives in the west wing, with a modern stair to the east of the cross passage. The roofs are varied, generally comprising pegged and collared trusses, some with tie-beams, supporting paired purlins, some with windbracing. Some closed trusses are present; that to the porch bears the date 1787 in plaster to the left of the door providing access to the roof space.

An inscription in black letters is painted on the sloping ceiling in one of the attics, only partly legible: "I goe to bed as to my….knowes when…..Lord……thou with me…..take Decem. 1646".