St Margarets House

St Margaret's House, now part of the Shire Hall, is an early 18th-century house incorporating 13th-century Abbey remains and early 20th-century extensions. It is constructed of red brick with lighter rubbed brick dressings, and has a tiled roof.

The original north front, dating from the 18th century, features a seven-window range, arranged 3:1:3, with the centre breaking forward slightly. The windows have glazing bars within broad, flush-cased frames and flat, gauged arches. Giant brick pilasters rise through three storeys on the east and west ends, culminating in a moulded brick dentil cornice. The projecting central section has similar pilasters topped by a moulded brick pediment. A brick band runs below the top-storey windows, and a central doorway has a stone surround and pediment supported by enriched console brackets. A large moulded brick chimney stack is also present.

To the east, there is a timber-framed and plastered wing from the 18th century, with a slate mansard roof and a five-window range featuring sashes with narrow glazing bars in flush cased frames, plus three dormers. The south side of the building is enclosed by ornately gabled Edwardian extensions, including a turret with a conical roof.

The interior includes an old wine cellar below the western half of the main range. The brick-fronted range has a 17th-century timber-framed core. A two-bay room, now divided into two, features an ovolo-moulded main beam and is fully panelled with raised fielded panels. The entrance hall contains a fine early 18th-century staircase with bracketed open strings, three vase-on-reel balusters to each step, and a dado with raised fielded panels. Ornamental plasterwork with floral and leaf designs, including a central wreathed anchor, decorates the base of the first-storey balustrade. Above part of the second-storey stair, there is a section of 17th-century stair with barley-sugar-twist balusters. Within the mansard-roofed range, a section of the south precinct wall of the Abbey is visible, forming an internal ground-storey wall. This wall includes a hollow-chamfered pointed arched stone doorway, uncovered during recent repair work.