Ixworth Abbey

Ixworth Abbey was founded as a Priory of Augustinian Canons by Gilbert de Blund in 1170. After the Dissolution, part of the monastic complex was demolished whilst the remainder was converted to domestic use. The building now presents a complex, irregular form of varying heights: part 1½ storeys, part 2 storeys, and part 2 storeys with attics. Construction employs mixed materials including freestone, flint, red and white brick, timber-framing, and plaster, with plain-tiled roofs throughout.

The principal north front is faced in mid-to-late 18th-century brick and is composed in two distinct sections forming an L-shaped elevation. The eastern half, standing at 1½ storeys, features a plain parapet that rises to a rounded arch above the main entry. A range of four early 19th-century small-paned sash windows are set into earlier openings with segmental arched heads; one window retains heraldic glass of the Cartwright and Norton families, installed around 1890. The entrance has a high 8-panel door with raised fielded panels, set within a doorcase with fluted Tuscan pilasters and metope frieze.

Along the rear wall of this section are two long late 17th-century sash windows with thick, ovolo-moulded glazing bars. This range was added in the late 17th century and preserves several fine original interior fittings: a 3-sided open newel stair with twisted balusters, an entrance archway to the undercroft with heavily rusticated and ornamented architrave, and a panelled upper room with coved ceiling and a fireplace flanked by pilasters bearing composite capitals.

The western half of the front stands forward and rises to 2 storeys with a roof featuring two hipped gables to the north. This section has five small-paned sash windows in deep reveals, all with segmental arched heads; three window openings are blocked and fitted with painted windows. The central entrance is a 6-panelled door with raised fielded panels, a rectangular traceried fanlight, and a doorcase with fluted pilasters and a flat pediment supported on carved console brackets.

The return front to the east is plastered with a wooden dentil cornice and three plain stone-faced buttresses to the ground storey. Three 3-light Regency Gothic windows display heraldic glazing of 1841, whilst the upper storey contains four small-paned sash windows in flush frames. This section of the house encompasses the truncated remains of the Priory's south range and the entire east (dorter) range, excluding the Chapter House.

An early 13th-century undercroft occupies this area, divided into three double bays with two octagonal piers supporting a roof of groined vaulting. A slype at the north end, aligned east-west, contains three bays of more finely finished vaulting. A separate room at the south end comprises two double bays with a supporting central pier and a fireplace on the north wall. The room above features late 17th-century sash windows and is lined with re-used Jacobean panelling. Within the upper part of the original west wall, now interior to the building, survives one early 13th-century lancet window with deep splay lined with original plaster and simulated stone jointing executed in red ochre. No trace of the west range survives.

A late 15th-century red brick Abbot's lodging occupies the south-east angle between the dorter range and the late 17th-century wing, possibly modernised in the later 16th century. It retains a good moulded ceiling to the ground floor hall.

An attached outbuilding of brick and flint, with a plain-tiled roof, forms one side of a 3-sided rear courtyard. The roof is surmounted by a timber cupola containing a clock and bell, supported by an octagonal turret with eight supporting columns and topped with a conical roof and finial.