Prior'S Hall

Prior's Hall is a house on Widdington High Street, probably originally built as a chapel in the 10th or 11th century. It was remodelled as a dwelling around the 14th century, extended in the late 17th or early 18th century, and altered in the 19th century.

The building is constructed of flint rubble with Barnack stone quoins, rendered; the later extension is rendered timber frame, brick and flint. The roof is plain tile with gabled ends and a hipped corner, with brick axial and gable end stacks.

The plan is L-shaped overall. The Saxon chapel forms the east wing, with a small chancel arch at its east end and a blocked double-splayed window in the gable above; the north wall of the lean-to on the east end probably represents the remains of the chancel. When converted to a house in the 14th century, the plan comprised a 2½-bay open hall at the east end of the nave, heated by an open hearth, and an almost equally long two-storey section at the west end of the nave. The open hall was later floored and an axial stack inserted against the partition in the 17th century. The west wing, added in the late 17th or early 18th century, contains a stairhall and parlour with kitchen and service rooms in a rear wing; the rear wing was altered and extended in the 19th century.

Externally, the building is two storeys. The north front is asymmetrical with a 2:3 window arrangement; the longer left bay has long-and-short quoins exposed. The first floor has circa 18th-century three and one-light casements with leaded panes; the ground floor has 20th-century three and four-light casements with a doorcase to the right of centre, featuring a canopy on shaped brackets and a glazed and panelled door. The east end contains a lean-to with a blocked chancel arch with long-and-short quoins. At the rear, a circa late 15th or 16th-century moulded wood six-light first floor window and four-light ground floor window may represent remains of the original hall window. A flint and brick wing on the left has a catslide roof over an outshut and casement windows.

Internally, the left-hand room (the former hall) has chamfered axial beams with hollow step stops and a blocked fireplace with exposed timber bressummer. The centre room has a plastered cross-beam. There are 18th-century two-panel doors and a 17th-century panelled door to the attic, with a late 19th-century staircase. The west range has a circa late 17th-century clasped purlin roof. The nave of the chapel has a plain 14th-century crown post roof of light scantling; 1½ bays above the hall are smoke-blackened, with a long clean bay to the west separated by a partition with remains of smoke-blackened plaster. Tall crown-posts feature long curved longitudinal braces only, with the collar-purlin at the west end having a splayed scarf joint with undersquinted abutments; common rafter couples are complete with ashlar-pieces halved and side-lapped.

Historically, the property belonged to Thorkell (Thurchill) before 1066 and was given to the Abbey of St Valery in Picardy after the Norman Conquest. In 1377 it was confiscated by Edward III and given to William of Wykeham, thereafter remaining in the ownership of New College Oxford until 1920.