Priors

Priors is a house dating from the 17th, 18th, and 20th centuries, situated in Kelvedon Hatch. It is timber-framed, with rendered and pebble-dashed front elevations, brick sections, and a peg-tiled roof, arranged in a T-plan.

The front, or east, elevation is early 18th century red brick, notable for its unusual bond pattern of two stretchers and three headers alternating vertically within each course, with scored mortar. The facade has five bays, a simple string course at mid-height, and a parapet. There are four windows on the ground floor and five on the first floor. All windows are straight-headed sash windows with gauged brick voussoirs, plain reveals, and 3x4 pane glazing bars. A central projecting brick porch has a flat head and corner piers with brick block capitals and a simple cornice; an 'astragal' string course is partially missing. The porch has two fixed lights on its sides, dating to the 20th century. The outer door is 20th century, with four fielded panels. The inner doorway features an Adam-style fanlight and fielded panelled reveals; the two-leaf door has recessed and glazed upper panels.

The south elevation is rendered, pebble-dashed, and colour-washed over a timber frame. On the east side of the south elevation is a red brick stack in English bond, with a hipped roof. To the west is a two-storey and attic unit with a stack at its end. Ground-floor windows are 20th century sashes with 5x4 panes, while a first-floor sash is late 18th century with 5x4 pane glazing bars. A late 18th century dormer features a sash window with 3x2 panes. A western unit has a lower roofline, two storeys, and a stack at its end, with a ground-floor flush framed and panelled door and a simple boarded hood on shaped brackets. A late 18th century 3-light casement window has 2x3 panes per light. A first-floor sash window is late 18th century, and another is 20th century, both with 3x4 pane glazing bars. The north elevation is irregular with a 20th-century French window set in a late 18th century reeded frame, and an old iron-framed casement window set back where the western unit projects.

The interior has undergone considerable refurbishment, obscuring much of the original rudimentary timber framing. The principal eastern block is in Adam style, with an Adam-style fireplace and reeded ceiling cornice with leaf motifs in one room. The window reveals are original, with fielded panels and shutters with locking bars. Another room has a frieze with reeding and alternating paterae, with original shuttered window reveals. A mahogany handrail and plain square balusters run along a staircase; a second back staircase remains in the rear block. The ground-floor kitchen fireplace at the rear of the central block has a moulded cornice cut to receive a spit mechanism. The roof over the front block is constructed from Baltic pine, using long, knot-free lengths for the side purlin construction. The house was formerly the residence of the Essex cricketer, FL Fane.