12 and 12a, Minster Precincts

Nos. 12 and 12A, Minster Precincts

Now two dwellings. The building has a 13th-century core, altered in the mid-17th century, with a wing of about 1700 and further rebuilding and extensions in 1842 by W. J. Donthorne, then again by E. Browning in 1853 and the 1870s. The external walls are of coursed squared stone and ashlar with stone dressings, beneath stone slate and parapeted roofs with stone ridge and end stacks. The style is Gothic, and the plan is irregular, based on a medieval hall layout.

The building is of one and two storeys with attics. The central single-storey section features a tall two-light window with a projecting entrance porch to its left. A projecting section to the right has two two-light windows over a second entrance doorway and a loophole to the left. Further to the right, the facing gable of the circa 1700 wing (No. 12A), modified in the mid-19th century, has a two-light window over a three-light oriel window. A projecting section to the far left has a two-storey canted bay. Further ranges extend beyond this. The right side, facing the cathedral, has a three-window range of two-light windows and a two-storey canted bay. A battlemented parapet runs along the frontage. The rear elevation includes tall windows in the central section and two-storey sections to left and right.

Internally, the central two-storey hall forms the majority of the 13th-century hall, remodelled in the 17th century and mid-19th century. It contains a carved stone fireplace and a staircase to a gallery. The circa 1700 range (No. 12A) has a fine dogleg staircase with turned balusters and four rooms, two fully panelled and two partly panelled, with raised and fielded panelling. To the left of the hall, the dining room has late 18th-century raised and fielded panelling, and the drawing room has side sections remaining of an elaborate mid-19th-century ceiling.

The house was the Prior's House before the Reformation; the hall walling from this period remains in part. Since at least the 17th century it has served as the Deanery.