The Friars, Main Block

The Friars, Main Block

This is a Carmelite Priory, later converted to a house, now returned to use as a Carmelite Priory. The priory was founded in 1241 with a 13th-century church rebuilt from 1348, which was demolished after the Reformation. The 15th- and 16th-century conventual buildings were altered in the late 17th century, rebuilt after a fire in 1930, and saw substantial additions after the Carmelites returned in 1949.

Refectory Cloister Block

Built in the later 15th century, the first floor and above were rebuilt in the mid-20th century. The construction is coursed dressed stone with plain tiled roofs. Only the south and west walks of the cloister survive. The building has two storeys with an attic only in the north wing. There is a gable parapet on the south range to the east, and five hipped dormers facing east on the north wing.

The cloister extends six bays to the south and five bays to the west, with stepped buttresses between bays. The cloister runs five bays to either side of the angle of the blocks. The sixth bay of the south range has a narrower arch opening into a further projecting cloister of mid-20th-century date. The first floor features two-light mullioned and traceried windows. Below, the cloister has hollow chamfered arches. The central cloister entrance is in the west arm, with two moulded round-arched entrances to the block behind at the right end of the west arm. Entrances to the block behind the south arm are in a central recess, which has the floor-joist of the refectory above supported on a tall, moulded octagonal wooden post. Behind this is a triple stone hollow-chamfered mullioned window with a moulded lintel, and a similar window at the right with a pointed arch. There is a wide arched recess with a high cill to the left.

Domestic Block

This block is dated 1677 and 1678 on rainwater heads and was added by Sir Joseph Banks during remodelling of that date. It is constructed of random rubble stone with tiled roofs. The east side shows the gable end of the block. It has two storeys and attics with two bays. The attic has two-light stone mullioned windows, the first floor has large 20th-century wooden casements, and the ground floor has three-light hollow-chamfered stone mullioned windows.

The north side has a roof hipped at the right and gabled to the left with gable parapets and kneelers, stepped down from the left in the centre. The left-hand block has end stacks and four gabled and bargeboarded later 19th-century dormers. It is two storeys and attic with a regular four-bay front and large 20th-century casement windows with upper-hung top-lights and gauged stone heads. The right-hand block has two 17th-century dormers, the left one segment-headed and the right one pedimented. This block is two storeys and attics with irregular fenestration of four lights on the first floor, the right of centre being a six-light transom and mullion window. On the ground floor to the left is a large hollow-chamfered depressed arch, now blocked, with an inset 20th-century round-arched entrance and boarded door, flanked by two small leaded windows. A one-storey hipped projecting 20th-century extension to the right has a round-arched entrance and boarded door flanked by leaded casements. The end wall of this block is not square but at an oblique angle in line with the outer wall of the north-eastern block of the Curia Courtyard behind. This section is two storeys with irregular fenestration of two windows on the first floor and one on the ground floor.

Curia: Interior of Courtyard

This stands to the west of the cloister ranges. Apart from the guest-house in the south range of 15th-century date, the Curia dates from the 16th century and was restored in the mid-20th century. The plan is square for the north, west and south sides, with a splayed eastern wing attached to the rear of the cloister and domestic blocks at the north end.

North-East Wing: Random rubble stone with some brick and some ashlar window dressings and plain tiled roof. Two storeys and attics with a central side stack corbelled out from the first floor, brick above and stone below. There are three gabled bargeboarded dormers. Irregular fenestration includes three windows on the first floor and four on the ground floor. The three to the left on the ground floor are stone-mullioned and restored; there is one unrestored stone-mullioned window on the first floor to the right. Round-arched doorways are to the left and right, with the right one flanked by a pair of smaller windows and set in a blocked hollow-chamfered depressed arch matching that to the north of the block.

East Wing: Random rubble stone with some red brick dressings and some ashlar dressings and plain tiled roof. Two storeys and attics only to the left, with six hipped dormers and a parapeted gable cross-wing to the right at the end of the refectory block behind. The rendered south-west corner of the taller 17th-century domestic block can be seen projecting behind the roof at the angle of the north-east and east wings. There is a projecting two-storey extension at the angle of the blocks and five buttresses: two flanking the gable to the right, with one lower buttress in the centre and two to the left. Irregular fenestration includes six windows on the first floor, the extreme right being a tall triple-mullioned traceried window lighting the west end of the refectory. There are two mullioned windows second and third from the right. The ground floor has six windows with two extra very small windows. Two large later 17th-century cross windows are to the left of centre with carved bracket keystones in stone. At the right end of the block, 20th-century additions extend to the angle with the hall (not listed).

South (Hall) Wing: Random rubble stone with rendered first floor to the right. The right-hand block projects, flanked by gabled projecting stair towers, to the left and right of the water-gate. The tower to the right is actually a part of the west wing.

The hall (to the left) is recessed with a plain tiled roof, three dormers and an end stack to the right in a gable parapet, partly masked behind a stair-turret. It is two storeys and attic with irregular fenestration of four windows on both floors, mostly mullioned with casements. Those second from the left on both floors are pointed with trefoil heads. There are two pointed-arched door-surrounds, both heavily-moulded, to entrances to the left and right of centre.

The block to the right has an entrance to the stair-tower in the angle of the recess. The stair-tower has one window on both floors at different levels reflecting the stair behind. This block is two storeys and attic with two gabled and barge-boarded dormers to the right. There are two windows on the first floor and one to the left on the ground floor, all with lattice casements. An arch with a moulded arched bressummer passes through the block to the right.

West Wing: Random rubble with ashlar dressings on the ground floor, rendered above, and plain tiled roof. Two storeys and attics with five gabled dormers, all with 20th-century moulded barge-boards. A rendered and gabled two-storey projecting and battered stair-tower is at the extreme left. Irregular fenestration includes six windows on the first floor and seven windows on the ground floor, all lattice casements. There are four boarded and ribbed doors in depressed pointed-arched and moulded surrounds, to the right of centre and to the right, to the left and at the extreme left.

North-West Wing: Random rubble with ashlar quoins and window dressings and plain tiled roof. Two storeys and attic with six timbered and gabled dormers with 20th-century moulded barge-boards. Irregular fenestration includes six windows on the first floor and seven windows on the ground floor; lattice casements, on ground and first floors, in ovolo-moulded mullioned surrounds. There is a large arch at the extreme left and four boarded and ribbed doors, to the left of centre and to the left, to the right and almost at the right-hand end.

Exterior of Courtyard

South (River) Front: The hall projects to the right and is random rubble stone with a plain tiled roof. There are three modern mullioned windows, one on each floor in the west end. A recessed wing to the left is random rubble with ashlar dressings on the ground floor, rendered and jettied above, with a plain tiled roof. Two storeys and attics with two gabled dormers. Irregular fenestration includes six windows on the first floor and five windows on the ground floor. A wide central chamfered and pointed archway was originally the watergate.

West Front: Random rubble on the ground floor, rendered above, with a plain tiled hipped roof and a lower 20th-century extension to the left. Two storeys and attic, one and a half storeys to the left, with seven gabled dormers and three semi-dormers on the lower left extension. Irregular fenestration includes twelve windows on the first floor and 16 windows on the ground floor, all lattice casements, some 20th-century mullioned windows, with a pointed arched window with a cusped head at the right-hand end. A shallow chamfered-arched doorway at the right end leads to the river.

North-West Front: Random rubble with ashlar dressings and plain tiled roof. Two storeys and attic with six stepped buttresses regularly deployed between windows except one missing at the right-hand end. Four gabled dormers. Irregular fenestration includes six windows on the first floor and six windows on the ground floor, lattice casements some in chamfered mullioned surrounds, and the extreme right on the ground floor in a round-arched surround set deep within a straight-pointed arched frame. A projecting 20th-century one and a half storey wing is to the right (not listed).