12-20, PRIORY LANE

This is a monastic range, part of the Benedictine Priory of St Margaret in King’s Lynn. The core of the structure dates to the 14th century, but the main work was undertaken in the 15th century, possibly between 1445 and 1448, and may be associated with the construction of a new hall. The building was altered in the 18th century and subsequently restored and divided into six dwellings between 1974 and 1975.

The building is constructed of brick, ashlar, and carstone, with a plain tiled roof, and a lower, late 17th-century attachment with a pantiled roof. The front elevation features a rebuilt stone arch to the rear, with hollow and wave mouldings. The windows are generally renewed cross casements, though one at the east end of the first floor is set within a four-centred recess. Other stone single-light windows are also present. A hall firestack corbels out from the first floor to the right of the archway, next to a trefoil cusped two-light window. A blocked timber doorway sits beneath the hall stack. Seven other blocked doorways are spaced at intervals along the elevation. The gabled roof has eight stacks positioned on or just off the ridge line. A lower, hipped, two-storey attachment was added in the late 17th century, featuring windows with glazing bars. A single-storey extension has a door and a lap-glazed window.

The rear (north) elevation shows a more depressed arch than the one on the front. A 17th-century door with an overlight is located to the right of this arch. Various renewed or restored ashlar lancets are also present. Number 18 has a large depressed arch at ground floor level, now filled with a window and a door, with two four-centred recesses above. The first floor of number 17 has two two-light, cusped windows relating to the former hall, with a single cusped window to their right. Number 19 features a one two-light and one four-light transomed window with chamfered stone mullions.

The interior has only been partially inspected. The first-floor hall plan is likely the result of an alteration to the original open hall arrangement. The fireplaces are large and open, not earlier than the 16th century. An internal ground-floor fireplace bressumer at the east end has an incised Latin cross. The original roof structure comprised crown posts, with tension braces dropping from post to tie beam and intersecting arched braces rising from the tie beam to the principal rafters. Crown braces are present to the collar purlin. It’s believed that the date of around 1445 for construction is likely accurate.