Rowney House Rowney Priory

Rowney Priory and Rowney House are a country house, now divided into two separate residences, dating from the mid-19th century. Local tradition suggests the house incorporates fabric from a Benedictine nunnery founded in 1164 by Conan, Duke of Brittany and Earl of Richmond. Following changes in ownership, the nunnery became a Chantry and was subsequently confiscated by the Crown in 1548. The exterior is constructed from knapped flint with white brick quoins and dressings. A flint and stone arcaded screen and open porch are prominent at the front. The roofs are steeply pitched and covered in old red tiles. The house is H-shaped with a two-story main block and attic space, facing east. Projecting gabled wings feature oversailing boarded verges and recessed sash windows within chamfered, square-headed openings, each with moulded labels. Tall red brick chimneys display diagonally set square shafts. A castellated screen, composed of three bays with four-centred arches, conceals the front elevation and is flanked by a square open porch with a low-pitched stone gable. A narrow and a wider gabled and corbelled dormer oriel flank the porch, with a circular armorial window positioned between them. Behind the screen are four-light, moulded mullioned and transomed leaded windows, framing a half-glazed, Gothick oak panelled door recessed within a Tudor arched opening with deep reveals. Moulded cross-windows with leaded lights are located on the left-hand wing. The symmetrical garden front, facing east, features a two-light cross window flanked by three-light pilastered sash windows with round-headed lights. Central French doors, raised two steps, are flanked by stone and flint embattled canted bays with moulded cross windows. A red-tiled, timber arcaded cloister is situated to the right, behind a brick and flint screen wall forming a forecourt. A projecting two-story range extends from the rear, displaying a ten-light ovolo stone mullioned window above a Tudor arched loggia, and a six-light, similar window. A northwest service wing also projects from the rear, built of flint and brick with sash windows. The north wing is now known as Rowney House. The interior retains a good, contemporary feel, with a striking staircase in a Jacobean style. Rowney House contains an oak-panelled room with a chimney piece, Delft tiles, and small Ionic caryatids in a Flemish style. There is also a red-tiled timber arcaded small cloister to the right behind a brick and flint screen wall to the forecourt.