Pamber Priory Priory Church Of The Holy Trinity, Our Lady, And St John The Baptist

Pamber Priory is the Priory Church of the Holy Trinity, Our Lady, and St John the Baptist, originally founded by Henry de Port during the reign of Henry I as a dependency of St Vigor Carasy in Normandy. It was suppressed as an alien priory in 1446 and later came under the ownership of Queens College, Oxford, which restored the church in 1843 and 1936.

The remaining structure of the priory church includes an Early English choir and a Norman Tower, with some fragments incorporated into a wall extending west from the south-west corner of the tower. The choir features four tall lancets on each side at the east end, a triple lancet east window, and at the western end, two low pointed arches on rectangular piers that once opened into side chapels but are now walled off to create recesses. Three of these recesses contain medieval slabs, while one holds a fine 13th-century wooden effigy of a cross-legged knight. Inside, there are floor slabs, 15th-century pews, a small section of the north wall with remnants of 13th-century wall painting, and a trefoil-headed piscina.

The tower is supported by round arches with stages resting on plain caps. The upper level features three arches on each face, with the outer arches containing windows and a restored open timber frame that supports a ceiling and a pyramid roof. An 18th-century wooden screen separates the tower from the chancel, while the other three sides of the former crossing are formed by later walls. The west wall has a central entrance, and the north wall includes doorways leading to a modern vestry.

Externally, the church has tile roofing, with a low-pitched slate roof above the vestry. The walls are made of flint, partly plastered, with stone dressings, and the tower is constructed from stone rubble with ashlar features. A stair turret projects from the north-west corner of the crossing, and buttresses are present along the lines of the former transepts and nave. A 15th-century font is located in the center of the floor beneath the tower, and several medieval coffin slabs are found on the east side.