Langney Priory

Langney Priory is a house with a complex history, dating back to before 1121 when the Cluniac monks built a chapel, refectory, and dormitory as part of the Grange of St Pancras at Lewes. The oldest section boasts garderobes and a roof supported by kingpost timbers, with a doorway in the church believed to be Saxon in origin. The walls are constructed of chequered work, using alternating rectangles of sandstone and knapped flints. The South wall features two buttresses; the Western one is narrower, with a double-chamfered modified abacus above ground level and a wider section above that, hollowed and incorporating a first-floor window. A distinctive feature is a recessed area on the South wall, its purpose obscure but potentially linked to smuggling. The South wall contains one trefoil-headed lancet window and three square-headed windows, one of two lights. The East wall displays a two-light window with cinque-foiled heads and a quatrefoil between them, above a pointed arch. This medieval portion is crowned with a fine timbered roof, now tiled. A cobble-fronted building with a lean-to roof adjoins the North side and once functioned as a brewery.

The West front of the house is a 16th-century timber-framed structure with three gables, featuring a cement-rendered ground floor and a tiled roof. Although 18th-century sash windows have been inserted into the ground floor, the original 16th-century drip moulds remain above them. The first-floor casement windows are modern. A Victorian porch with a slate roof fronts the West end. The West end of the South front, connecting the timber-framed building to the medieval wing, is also of the 16th century but has been stuccoed and fitted with 18th-century sash windows. A 17th-century block, constructed of brick and sandstone with a tiled roof and casement windows, is situated on the North side.