St Radegund'S Abbey Farmhouse And Outhouse

St Radegund's Abbey Farmhouse and Outhouse is a former monastic refectory, now a house, dating back to the early 13th century. It was converted into a house around 1590 for Simon Edolph and altered in the 18th century, with restoration work undertaken in 1981.

The building is constructed of pressed stone, flint and rubble, with some red brick detailing, and has a plain tiled roof. It is two storeys high, built above an undercroft, and features brick stacks on the rear centre and rear left. A projecting hipped two-storey porch is located on the right side. Decorative stonework from around 1590 is visible throughout, incorporating triangular panels, lozenge-shaped ashlar set within flint panels, and alternating stone and flint blocks. The first floor has two cross windows. Wooden four-light mullioned and transomed windows are located to the left, while a stone three-light window is present in the centre right on the ground floor; both are inserted into earlier openings with label hoods. A blocked brick basement opening is on the left, and two wooden casements are centered and to the right. A porch at the right end has leaded wooden casements on the first floor, and a moulded round-headed arch with imposts, keystone, spandrels featuring shields, pilaster and cornice surround, leading to a flight of eight steps. The original multi-panelled and moulded door is housed within a keyed and impost inner doorway. The right return is tile-hung.

The rear elevation displays more evidence of medieval openings, including a chamfered doorway, and three massive buttresses. A refectory pulpit remains embedded at first-floor level. To the rear right (south-east of the house) is a single-storeyed wing with a corrugated iron roof, built of flint on dressed stone, with a boarded door and wooden casement on the east front, representing the remains of the monastic “common house”.

Inside, there is a screens passage and a 4-bay vaulted undercroft dating back to the 13th century.

The Abbey itself was founded in 1191 for Premonstratensian Canons, colonised directly from Premontre. Major building work occurred in the early 13th century, although the foundation declined around 1450, was dissolved in 1538, and purchased by Simon Edolph in 1590.