Jericho Priory

Jericho Priory is a house dating from the 18th century, incorporating a timber-framed range of 17th-century or earlier origin. It has been altered and extended in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond and roofed with handmade red clay tiles.

The house has a square plan with four angle towers. The entrance faces north, with an internal stack to the right of centre and two external stacks to the left. The main structure rises three storeys. To the left is an 18th-century service wing, which aligns with the front left angle tower. A late 19th-century extension to this wing features a gambrel roof with two storeys and attics, with stacks in its end walls. A 20th-century single-storey conservatory with a flat roof extends from the rear of the left rear angle tower.

The entrance elevation has on the ground floor one sash window of 6+6 lights, two of 4+4 lights, and three blocked apertures, all with segmental flat brick arches. The first floor has five similar sashes of 4+4 lights and one blocked aperture. The second floor has two sashes of 2+2 lights and four blocked apertures. A 20th-century door sits within an early 20th-century gabled porch in Gothic style, featuring a coupled rafter roof of high quality. An egg-and-dart eaves cornice of moulded brick runs along the elevation. The roof is hipped in three east-west ranges, with the hipped roofs of the angle towers connecting to the main roofs. Late 19th-century perforated ridge tiles are present.

The service wing's front elevation has on the ground floor an oval window with casement and marginal lights in a dressed brick surround, next to the main house, followed by three sashes of 6+6 lights with segmental arches (two in the late 19th-century extension). The first floor has four similar sashes of 3+6 lights, again with two in the late 19th-century extension. All windows appear to have been renewed in the early 20th century in early 18th-century style. The service wing is gabled and roofed with machine-made red clay tiles. The brick courses of the 18th and late 19th-century parts align, but the bricks are of different quality, with a visible straight joint between them.

The south (garden) elevation of the main house has on the ground floor one sash of 4+4 lights in the left angle tower (the other masked by the conservatory), followed by four 20th-century French windows with altered brick arches. The brickwork above has been rebuilt to accommodate the windows above. The first floor features a 2:4:2 range of sashes of 4+4, 6+6, and 4+4 lights respectively. The second floor has a similar range of 2+2 and 3+3 lights. The original window arches are segmental-flat and gauged; the 20th-century French window arches are shallower. All arches on this elevation have been pointed in a brighter red than the adjacent brickwork. Deep plaster coving above the central part has a stone sundial set partly into it, inscribed "Sine sole inutus sum". An egg-and-dart moulded brick cornice appears on the angle towers only.

The west elevation (to Church Street) has on the ground floor two sashes of 4+4 lights, two of 6+6 lights, and two blank apertures. The first floor has two sashes of 4+4 lights, one of 6+6, and four blank apertures. The second floor has two sashes of 2+2 lights, one of 3+3, a half-glassed emergency door, and three blank apertures. Two brick giant pilasters enclose the central windows. A cornice similar to that of the entrance front is present, with five hips. The rear left service range is of red brick in Flemish bond, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. It features 20th-century casements, flat-roofed dormers, and skylights, as well as late 19th-century perforated ridge tiles. The east gable end displays a regular pattern of blue headers. A lean-to greenhouse extends to the south, and a treble garage to the east.

The interior of the main house is primarily styled in the early 20th century. The two ground-floor rooms at the rear have boxed axial beams and are reported to have timber-framed walls, now concealed by 20th-century finishes. This indicates that a range approximately 9 metres by 5 metres of 17th-century or earlier origin was incorporated into the present house in the 18th century. One wide wood-burning hearth on the north side is constructed of handmade bricks with 20th-century cement mortar pointing; the jambs are 0.46 metres wide, and it has a 20th-century low arch. This may survive from the earlier house. The 18th-century wood-burning hearth back-to-back with it has a 20th-century mantel beam. The 18th-century front left hearth has a 20th-century mantel beam and cement mortar pointing. In the rear left service range, on the first floor, is a cast-iron grate of circa 1800.

The 18th-century vehicle access from Church Street was converted to a foot access in the early 20th century, when a new main access was created to Ingatestone Road on the east. The property's ownership can be traced from the dissolution of the Augustinian Priory in 1527, as documented in P. Morant's The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex (1768).