Priory Close

TL 5663 SWAFFHAM PRIOR HIGH STREET (East Side) 15/179 No 73 Priory Close

II

Cottage, early C16. Timber-framed plaster rendered with left hand gable end cased in gault brick in C19. Thatched roof of longstraw with a gault brick ridge stack. Plan of three bays and narrower firebay, but with original entry to a cross-passage at low end of the hall. Converted to lobby entry plan. One storey and attics. Two later gabled dormers. The three windows and the door are all C20, but more or less on the site of the original. At the rear there are the original lintels to the rear doorway to the cross-passage and two windows, one to the hall and another to the service end. This window and another in the front wall of what was probably the parlour both had diamond mullions. The framing in the rear wall has been exposed. Inside. Stop chamfered ceiling beams with joists laid flat and unmoulded. The partition wall between the hall and service bay has been removed. The inglenook hearth is of clunch and brick, which has been restored. The jambs of the hearth have cyma moulding and stops. The framing in the left hand gable end has been retained and is exposed to show cranked bracing similar to that found in the crown-post roof of Linton House, High Street, Swaffham Bulbeck and the wall bracing at the barn, Downing Farm, Swaffham Bulbeck (q.v.). The ceiling of the hall is carried on chamfered clamps pegged to the studs.

R.C.H.M. (North East Cambs.), p123, mon (8)

Listing NGR: TL5670763828