The Priory

The Priory is a house with a core dating back to the 17th century, which has been significantly altered and expanded in several phases during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the artist and antiquarian John Seymour Lucas RA. The building features a timber frame with a brick extension to the east, all of which is plastered or roughcast rendered, topped with a pantiled roof. It stands two storeys high with an attic. The windows are late 19th or early 20th century casements with square leaded panes. The entrance porch is asymmetrical, with an overhanging first floor and a 4-centre arch leading to the doorway, which has a boarded door with cover fillets. There is one ground floor oriel window and two two-storey splayed bays, each topped with a gabled dormer, along with one dormer window and one half dormer. The house has an original stack on the west side and two late 19th or early 20th century stacks with tall flues set diagonally.

Attached to the west is an annexe that largely reconstructs a medieval chapel associated with the Augustinian Priory, although some parts of the walling on the west and north sides appear to be original, as these remains were previously incorporated into a cottage. This structure is built of random flint and stone with red brick dressings and a pantiled roof. It consists of two bays, featuring brick windows with pointed arches, Y tracery, and hoodmoulds; the eaves are supported by corbelled brickwork, and the west gable displays stepped brickwork along with a gable end stack. Inside the house, one room contains 16th century beams and panelling that were originally from a house in Saffron Walden, Essex, and two ornamental overmantels were added during the restoration.