Gatehouse, Carmelite Friary Ruins

The gatehouse to the former Carmelite friary ruins in Burnham Norton is a Grade I listed building, marking the first Carmelite foundation established in 1241 after their expulsion from Mount Carmel in Sinai in 1238. The structure dates from the 14th century and is in the Decorated style, possibly linked to an enlargement recorded in 1343. It features a lower section made of rubble and an upper section of squared and knapped flint with cut stone dressings, topped by a 20th-century tiled roof.

The gatehouse stands two storeys high. The west front has a ground floor entrance arch with a canted, richly moulded design and simple quoined reveals, along with a label mould. Above the entrance is a string course that supports a segmental arched recessed tympanum, which has moulded bases for three missing statues and knapped flint infill. The entrance arch and tympanum are recessed under a segmental headed arch that continues as a string course on either side. Below this line, there is pebble flint, while knapped and squared flint is found above.

On either side of the entrance, there are two trefoil-headed blank arches and outer buttresses. Above the string course, a central two-centred arched window with tracery has temporarily had its tracery removed, flanked by two blank arches with Decorated tracery and outer buttresses. The gable features three blank traceried lancets, kneelers, and a coped parapet. The east elevation includes deeply moulded attached piers with bases and capitals, an arch, and two niches above, as well as two blank windows with intersected and cusped tracery.

Inside, there are two richly moulded vaulted bays with attached wall shafts, ribs, and two defaced central bosses. The ground floor has a south door, while the first floor features a north door. The site is also designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, County Number 202.