The Priory Hotel

House, now a hotel, standing on the site of the former Babwell Friary, a house of Franciscan friars transferred here after 1262. The building dates from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, possibly with fragmentary older elements. It is constructed in part with timber-framing and render, and in part with flint and brick dressings, with plain tiled roofs. The plan is complex, comprising a principal range aligned east-west with two wings extending northwards from it.

Exterior

The building is part two storeys and part two storeys with attics. The principal range is timber-framed and rendered, with a red brick gable end facing Mildenhall Road. This gable incorporates a 16th-century chimney stack with four detached hexagonal shafts on moulded bases. In the early 17th century the stack was widened and given shaped gables, with quoins to the lower stages partly of stone. Just below the chimney shafts is a recessed plaster panel bearing the remains of a sundial.

The principal front faces south and comprises a range of five windows, all 12-pane sashes in flush cased frames. The central entrance is a six-panel double door, partly glazed, set within a heavy Tuscan porch. An internal chimney stack features five attached hexagonal sawtooth shafts on a low rectangular base. The roof pitch has been made shallower to accommodate a larger attic storey.

On the east side, a two-storey flat-roofed canted bay was added to the gable end in the 18th century, containing three windows of 12-pane sashes in flush cased frames and a plain parapet with moulded stucco cornice. Above the flat roof, the gable contains a two-light casement window and moulded bargeboards with a small lion's head at the apex.

The wing extending northwards from the east end of the main range is in two sections: one part with sash windows in Georgian style, another on a lower level with a split-level mansard roof. The long wing extending northwards from the west end of the main range fronts Mildenhall Road and is constructed in flint with white brick dressings. Externally of early 19th-century character, it is thought to contain fragments of the Friary buildings, although none are visible. This wing features a six-window range of 12-pane sashes in shallow reveals, two half-glazed doors and four sash windows to the ground storey. An internal chimney stack has three hexagonal shafts on moulded bases similar to those on the gable end stack; it originally had four shafts.

Interior

The east-west range is divided into three bays and was originally divided into three heated rooms. Main beams are visible on the ground storey in the east bay, boxed in. The two western bays have ovolo-moulded trimmers and a main cross-beam which formerly held a partition, now faced with later boarding. The end stack on the west has a very wide fireplace with plain stone jambs and a straight chamfered lintel. The internal stack contains two back-to-back hearths on each storey, all rendered over to simulate stone. On the ground storey these have simple ovolo-moulded segmental-arched openings; on the upper storey one has a moulded Tudor arch with spandrels. Another upper fireplace has been 'Georgianised' and features patterned blue Delft tiles.

Along the north upper wall of this range is a section of close studding with a blocked three-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window and main posts with long jowls. Within the upper room at the east end, the tie-beam of the original end wall is exposed, displaying an unusual form of folded leaf carving with a central pomegranate motif. Some sash windows on each storey retain panelled internal shutters. An early 19th-century stair has stick balusters and a wreathed handrail.

The Babwell Friary remains are a Scheduled Ancient Monument.