St Augustines Priory (Medieval Buildings)

St Augustine's Priory is a monastic complex, later used as a farmhouse, dating from around 1253. It was restored in 1906 by J.T. Micklethwaite for R.H. Balston. The building is constructed of ragstone with a plain tiled roof. It comprises a first-floor hall, a three-storey tower, and a three-storey cross-wing.

The hall range features corner buttresses and a string course. It has 20th-century plate-traceried windows, with one genuine lancet window in the gable end. The north elevation incorporates a cill cornice to the first floor, raised centrally, with blocked doorways to the left and right, the latter containing a four-centred arch, and corbel heads. The remains of cloisters project from this elevation. The tower is two stages high externally, featuring small corner buttresses, a restored square-headed doorway, and shouldered lights. A shallow south-eastern angle vice rises to a hipped roof with gablets and a stack.

The three-storey cross-wing has a low-angle buttress and a hipped roof with gablets, and small squared lights. Entry is gained via a depressed arched and chamfered doorway to the undercroft of the main hall, approached by a wooden porch. The undercroft is plain, and a 20th-century wooden turned baluster staircase leads to the main hall. Internal window reveals have been lowered to create seats; only the western window is potentially original. Blocked, chamfered arched doorways are visible on the northern face and to the right of the western window on the west wall. Embedded remains of moulded main beams of the screens passage/gallery are present at the south end. The roof is restored, with three crown posts on moulded tie beams and a wall plate. A spiral staircase runs the full height of the tower block, with chamfered arched doorways to the hall and each floor of the chamber block. The tower chamber features simple chamfered fireplaces and a moulded cross-beamed roof. The chamber cross-wing has a short moulded crown post to the upper room, which may have originally been a double-height chamber with an inserted first-floor ceiling. The tower roof incorporates three massively braced tie beams and scissor-braced rafters.

The function of the surviving buildings is not fully established, but they were likely the Infirmary hall, possibly the Refectory with Prior's Lodgings attached. The priory, founded by Sir John Mansell in 1253 and occupied by Augustinian Canons, was dissolved in 1536 and subsequently used as a farmhouse before undergoing restoration in 1906.

The remains include foundations and the remains of cloisters to the north. Beyond these lie the church (of St. Mary the Virgin and St. Nicholas), the Gate House, a Holy Well, and three fishponds (one acting as a moat to the south-west). The plan shares similarities with the Premonstratensian priory at East Langdon, Kent. The site was used as a storage base by smuggling gangs, notably the Ransley gang, in the 19th century.