The Priory

TM 07 SW 2/27 15/11/54

WALSHAM LE WILLOWS THE CAUSEWAY (OFF EAST SIDE) The Priory

GV II

Parsonage house. Early C16, with substantial extensions of 1904. Timber- framed and rendered, plaintiled roofs. 2 storeys and attics; cellars to older range. The north front has 2 stacks of chimneys, one set just within the west gable with 4 barrel shafts on a corbelled rectangular base, the other, set internally, with 2 similar shafts. One late C17 2-light casement window with square leading to the upper floor and 3 similar blocked windows. A gabled 2- storey porch, jettied along 3 sides, with C19 fluted bargeboards and spike finial, contains the entrance door: Edwardian, 4-panel, the top 2 glazed with Gothic heads to lights, the bottom 2 raised and fielded. To each side of the porch, a single-storey lean-to with 2-light C20 casement windows, square leaded. The 1904 extension forms a large mock-timbered wing at the east end of the house and the south (garden) front has ornate fenestration largely of that date: 2 gabled dormers with fluted bargeboards and spike finials, 2-light upper windows with margin pane glazing, paired 2-light ground floor windows with ornate Gothic heads to lights. A full height gabled porch with double doors. The C16 range lies to left and right of the entrance porch. To the left, the 2-bay ground-floor room has an ogee-moulded main beam with run-off stops and additional applied mouldings. The post heads bear carved shields, one with the words SWR RICHARD, the other with ALDRIH CHANU, but the date is missing. Sir Richard Aldrich was one of the Canons at Ixworth Priory, and became incumbent of Walsham after the Dissolution. Small wooden shields attached to the fireplace lintel, one carved with a heart and arrows, the other with a hand bearing a heart, may have no direct connection with the house. To the right of the entrance a 2-bay room with a double roll-moulding to the main beam and cornice. Below this is the original cellar which has a large open fireplace with plain timber lintel. On the upper floor one ceiling has ogee-moulded cross-beams with run-off stops, the other, plain cross-beams. The porch room has a cambered ceiling, ogee moulded. The early C19 main stair has stick balusters, plain handrail, open string and moulded tread ends.

Listing NGR: TM0000971098