The Priory

A priory church, now a dwelling house, located at Little Wymondley. The building was founded between 1205 and 1207 by Richard de Argentien, initially established as a hospital and soon after converted into a priory of Augustinian Canons dedicated to St. Mary. Following the Dissolution, the priory was granted to James Nedham around 1536, who adapted the priory buildings into a mansion. The property was inherited and substantially improved by George Nedham in 1688. Parts of the cloister may have survived until around 1700; the eastern sections are said to have been destroyed by fire in the 18th century, with fragmentary stone walls recorded by Oldfield around 1800. The building was stripped to its shell and renovated in 1973 and 1974.

The surviving structure consists of the western part of the unaisled nave of the priory church, with 16th-century and later extensions and alterations. The walls are of flint rubble from the 13th century with uncoursed knapped flint facing, limestone ashlar facing to the eastern end of the south wall, and limestone dressings throughout. The western gable top and western buttress are also of limestone. A 16th-century southwestern block and northern block feature narrow red brick in English bond. All external walls are now roughcast. The roofs are steep and covered in old red tile.

The building is a large two-storey structure with attics, situated on a moated site and facing north. The higher central section, running east to west, represents the former priory church's nave. A small two-storey 16th-century parallel block adjoins the southwestern corner at the western end of the nave. The two-storey northern block is roofed by three parallel pitched roofs producing three gables on its north face, with its western end set back slightly from the western end of the nave.

The north front is designed to appear symmetrical, featuring three four-light transomed windows on the first floor and a central entrance door flanked by narrow single-light windows. Similar four-light windows appear on the ground floor on either side of the centre. The door is studded. Two internal chimneys with diagonal red brick shafts occupy the middle section.

The plan suggests domestic accommodation arranged from north to south comprising a pantry, entrance passage, hall (within the nave), and parlour (in the southwestern block). The hall and parlour possess eastern chimneys, with a passage behind the hall fireplace separating it from the kitchen chimney serving the eastern part of the nave.

During the 1973 renovation, work exposed the north and south walls of the nave. In the south wall at first-floor level are two 13th-century tall lancet windows with rebated outer openings and wide internal splays featuring corner shafts, moulded caps and bases, and two-centred moulded arches with three moulded elements. These windows were protected by the southwestern block. The cloister evidently lay to the north; a fine processional door is exposed in the western part of the north wall, displaying a superb moulded arch of multiple rolls and hollows with dog-tooth decoration. Where the south walk of the cloister would have been, a part of a late medieval traceried recess was found, along with part of a 16th-century wall painting depicting running warriors in classical armour.

The nave's roof structure is the most complete surviving feature. It consists of single framing with individual rafter couples, each featuring a collar and straight braces below the collar. Ashlar pieces near the feet of the rafters descend vertically to sole-pieces over twin wallplates, the whole describing a seven-sided figure. Heavy floor structures inserted into the nave create the first floor and attics. A four-centred first-floor stone moulded fireplace stands beneath a depressed three-centred relieving arch. A clock mechanism sits on a platform at the western end of the roofspace of the southwestern block. The 16th-century portions feature clasped-purlin roofs with curved wind braces.

For two centuries, the house served as the seat of the Nedham family, lords of the manor. In the later 18th century, it became the home of Thomas Browne, Garter King of Arms and an eminent land surveyor.