St Osyth's Priory ruined east ranges of the Darcy House including the Tower and Chapel

This group comprises the ruinous parts of Lord Darcy's mansion, built on and incorporating the remains of the medieval priory. The fabric spans several periods: early 12th-century and 13th-century remains of the dorter (dormitory) range of the abbey, remodelled and extended in the mid-16th century and around 1600, with a 19th-century conversion of the 13th-century frater (refectory) passage into a chapel.

Materials

The construction uses stone rubble with some septaria (a type of nodular limestone), and ashlar chequerwork. The early 17th-century range is built of brick.

Plan

The ruinous parts of the house built by the 1st Lord Darcy and his son form an L-shaped plan. They extend east from the surviving wing of the Darcy House, which lies to the south of the Abbot's Lodging, then turn north to follow the footprint of the east monastic dorter range. The Darcy Tower is attached to the east elevation at the south-east corner of this range. To the north of the former dorter range, now freestanding and slightly offset to the east, stands a ruinous wall with an octagonal turret to the south.

Exterior

Southern Wing and Link to Darcy Tower

The wall between the surviving southern wing of the Darcy House and the Darcy Tower is of red brick laid in English bond. It stands approximately 7 to 10 metres high, breaking forward and rising higher at the western end. The first-floor windows are blocked and have moulded labels over them. The chequerwork of the upper course of a 16th-century wall can be seen above the roofline of a lower, later lean-to structure which links the 1600 wall to the Darcy Tower.

Darcy Tower

The Darcy Tower is built of ashlar stone and septaria with flint galletting (small stones pressed into mortar joints). It has three stages above the ground floor, with a moulded plinth. Octagonal turrets rise from the two south corners and the north-east corner, extending above roof level. Between these turrets are parapets with slight gables. Rising above the fourth corner, the north-west, are two diapered stone chimney shafts with octagonal moulded bases and spiked caps. The south-west turret contains the stair, lit by a vertical line of small two-light windows in the south face.

A chamfered entrance to the ground floor on the east side has a Tudor arch with a square label over it. Each stage of the south elevation has three arched-light windows under square heads, with labels over and segmental relieving arches. The east elevation has three similar windows, with similar smaller windows in the north-east and south-east turrets. The west elevation has a similar window to the upper storey and a round-headed window to the second stage.

Chapel and Dorter Range

Immediately to the west of the ground floor of the tower is the south bay of the dorter range sub-vault, fronted to the west with chequered stonework and entered through a segmental pointed archway with a square label over it. To the north of this, the 19th-century chapel—converted from the passage to the east of the frater—projects west from and also incorporates part of the dorter range. Built of rubble, ashlar and some brick, it has a pitched tiled roof. The north and south elevations are crenellated.

The west elevation has a patched appearance representing several phases of work, with some chequerwork to the south end and to the parapet. It has a buttress to the north and a gable outshot to the south. The first-floor window has three lights under a square head, with moulded bands above and below. At ground-floor level are the remains of a four-bay trefoiled arcade. The chapel is lit by 19th-century or early 20th-century windows, those to the west elevation inserted into the arcade. The window to the north end is set within a 16th-century doorway which was itself inset into the arcade.

The south elevation has a two-light window with a moulded label with foliate stops. The north elevation has a doorway of around 1500 with a moulded arch and 19th- or 20th-century doors with ornate hinges. To the east of the door is a three-light window under a segmental head, and to the west is a square-headed two-light window. The east elevation has one window with plate tracery and a hood mould over it, inserted into a blocked arched entrance, and a second window with five graduated lancets.

Upper Storeys of Darcy House

The two 16th-century upper storeys of the Darcy House rise to the east of the chapel. To the north of these are the fragmentary remains of the 12th-century dorter sub-vault. The surviving east wall of the house contains the whole of one chequerwork gable and part of a second. The windows are all of the same type, with four-centred lights and square heads with moulded labels. The wall has a series of mid-16th-century buttresses and a chimney stack with an embattled offset and two diapered brick shafts with concave octagonal caps and moulded stone bases. Below this stack, inside the building, are three mid-16th-century fireplaces, two with moulded jambs, all with depressed heads.

Freestanding Remains

To the north are freestanding remains of the east wall and part of the south return wall, at the south-east corner of which is a semi-octagonal chequerwork tower. The tower has a two-light window under a square head with label over it in the east wall, and two-light windows under segmental heads at the south-east and south-west angles of the upper stage. To the north of the tower, in the south-east angle of the remains, is a small brick ogee arch inserted into earlier work, above which is a chamfered two-centred arched doorway. The east side of the wall north from the tower is faced in brick and has two windows to the first floor. Below the north window is a wide arched opening.

Kitchen Wing Fragment

Immediately to the south of the 19th-century Service Range is a fragment of the kitchen wing, standing approximately 3.5 to 4 metres high. It consists of a double respond of early 13th-century date, with half-round attached piers with moulded capitals and bases and the springers of arches to the north and east.

Interior

Chapel and Sub-Vault of the Dorter Range

The entrance to the chapel is in the north elevation, opening into the former frater passage. This has two bays by three bays of rib vaulting, the moulded ribs springing from stone corbels and slender Purbeck marble shafts with moulded capitals and bases. The floor has a pattern of 19th-century coloured tiles. A stone arcaded plinth with trefoiled arches runs around the walls and into three deep recesses to the east.

The first and longest of these recesses, to the south, is within the second bay of the dorter range sub-vault and has a patterned tiled floor and rubble groin-vaulted roof. At the east end are the splays of an old doorway, now blocked, with a small window inserted. The next two recesses are formed from the west ends of the next bay or bays of the sub-vault and are lit by the windows to the east. The narrow central recess has a vaulted roof with moulded ribs, as in the frater passage, and arched openings to the recesses on either side. The north recess has a plain tiled floor and brick barrel-vaulted roof. All windows have stained glass, one depicting St Osyth and her husband the Saxon King Sighere.

Between the east end of the chapel and the Darcy Tower is the southernmost surviving bay of the sub-vault of the dorter range. This has two bays from west to east and a groin-vaulted roof. The arches between the piers to north and south have been infilled to create an enclosed space. The piers are generally of early 12th-century date, with the lower courses constructed of Roman brick. To the east is a semi-circular 14th-century arch partly filled with septaria and brick, into which a doorway with moulded jambs and segmental-pointed head has been inserted. Towards the west end of the south wall, a door opens into a narrow space with a window to the west. This west wall is of brick, while the north and east walls are of chequered stonework.

Darcy Tower

The doorway to the east of the sub-vault opens into the base of the Darcy Tower. To the south, a doorway opens onto the staircase rising to the first floor of the tower. From here, stairs in the south-west turret give access to the further stages of the tower. At each stage there are doorways with segmental pointed arches opening onto the stair and into turrets. In the two upper stages are fireplaces with moulded fire surrounds; the fireplace to the upper stage has a cast-iron basket grate.

To the west of the tower, a corridor above the south bay of the dorter range gives access to a flat roof over the bays that form the east side of the chapel. To the south of the corridor is a wall with wide arched openings enclosed within the lean-to structure to the south. To the west of the roof over the dorter sub-vault is the chapel roof, and to the south of that a lean-to brick structure built against a section of a Darcy House wall.