Sandleford Priory

Sandleford Priory is a house, now a school, demonstrating a complex history beginning in the 14th century and significantly altered between 1780 and 1801, with involvement of the architect James Wyatt. The building is rendered with a slate roof, featuring ridge stacks, an end stack to the south and two to the east. It is arranged in a T-plan.

The west front has two storeys and a 2:1:1:1 bay arrangement. It features glazing bar sash windows with hood moulds, arched at the first floor level. A plinth, string course, cornice, and battlemented parapet are present. The end bays on the right and left project slightly, incorporating diagonal buttresses and battlemented gables with pinnacles and quatrefoil panels within the triangular spaces (tympana). A raised attic above the central bay is defined by a battlemented parapet and a quatrefoil panel. Curved wrought iron balconies are positioned in front of first-floor windows on either side. The central doorway has a four-centered arch, a side light, and two studded doors. A two-storey, five-bay addition, set back to the left, includes a cornice and a battlemented parapet. A brick kitchen block, dating from circa 1800, is situated to the far left, with a hipped slate roof and two thermal windows illuminating a double-height space. The south front includes a large, segmental bow. The east front is asymmetrical.

The east wing incorporates a 14th-century flint and stone chapel, which was refaced and rendered between 1780 and 1801. It has a parapet, crow-stepped gable ends, and a tiled roof. It features three bays with diagonal buttresses. The west front of the chapel has a large segmental-headed window and a Gothick ogee arch above it.

Inside, the Gothick entrance hall features a plaster ceiling and two niches on either side of the door to the east. The building retains vestiges of a great hall and a screen passage with plaster fan vaults supported by slender columns. The "Punch's room" includes a dais to the north with Doric columns supporting a shallow saucer dome. An adjoining oval room displays Adam-style decoration, including Wedgwood panels above the cornice. The remodelled chapel retains a roof dating from circa 1400 to 1420, with moulded arched braces and traces of original colouring; the top of a 14th-century arch is visible within the roof to the west.

Extensive landscaped grounds and a lake are situated to the east, designed by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. The site was originally occupied by a priory founded for Augustinian Canons around 1200. Sandleford Priory is significant for its surviving 14th-century fabric and as a complete example of 18th-century Gothick architecture.