The Priory

The Priory is a house located in Wiggenhall St. Mary. Originally a T-plan hall house built around 1500, it was remodelled and floored around 1525 when it was cased in brick, and the hall was rebuilt. The house was restored in the 1970s and has a concrete roof.

The main range features a central, late 20th-century gabled porch constructed using reused 16th-century moulded posts. There is a late 20th-century casement window to the left and right of the porch. A blocked square hall window is located to the left, beneath two 20th-century casements above. The gabled roof has a rebuilt ridge and south gable stacks. The south gable is stepped to ground floor level, incorporating a blocked doorway that now contains a statue in a niche. To the right is a moulded brick square light with hollow jambs, set under a square hood with labels. There are two similar windows on the first floor and in the attic, the latter with round heads. The gable is adorned with kneelers. The east side contains scattered 20th-century casements and remnants of blocked windows. A service wing projects to the north, but has been truncated to align flush with the 16th-century porch entrance. A square doorway with wave-moulded jambs and lintel, also under a square hood with labels, is now blocked and contains a 20th-century casement. An external stack is present on the north wall of the service wing. A gabled service wing projects to the west of the main range.

The interior retains the layout of a hall plan. The porch has a tierceron terracotta rib vault, with a 20th-century rose boss replacing a missing original. It leads to a screens passage, originally the hall to the left and service bays to the right. The sitting room features a fine ribbon-moulded bridging beam with a vine trail and roll-moulded joists. A wall plate with rosette and stud decoration, which originally extended around the room as a cornice, is above the fireplace. The fireplace has brick nogging and wave-moulded brick jambs. The dining room also has a bridging beam with multiple hollow and roll mouldings, along with the same joists as the sitting room. The fireplace in the dining room has a late 20th-century nogging. A slightly domed brick vaulted cellar has a terracotta tierceron rib vault on a two-bay diagonal system.

The roof structure comprises two crown post trusses with moulded tie beams arched braced to wall posts. The square section crown posts are arch braced to the tie beam, each with four top arched braces to collars and purlin.