Castle Priory College

Castle Priory College is a house, now a college, likely with an early 18th-century core that was encased and remodelled around 1760, with alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. The house is built of rendered brick on brick, with a Welsh slate hipped roof and rendered brick stacks to the centre block. It follows a double-depth plan, presenting a three-storey, five-window central range flanked by subsidiary wings. The main entrance features a six-panel door with a Doric pillared surround, set within a glazed porch topped with a lead ogee-shaped roof. The ground and first floors have 12-pane unhorned sash windows; the first-floor windows are accentuated by cornices and louvred shutters. A flat rendered band separates the first and second floors, above which are further 12-pane unhorned sash windows with shutters. A dentil cornice runs along the eaves. The single-storey wing to the left has two 12-pane unhorned sash windows, while the two-storey wing to the right features three first-floor windows with 6-pane horned sashes.

The rear elevation has a three-storey, five-window centre block, with the central three bays projecting. Glazed double doors with overlights provide access through round-arched doorways on either side, with three unhorned 12-pane sashes centrally placed. The first floor has 12-pane unhorned sash windows with cornices and louvred shutters, and the second floor contains similar windows, also with cornices and shutters. A single-storey wing to the right incorporates a tripartite sash window, and a single-storey, three-window wing to the left features central French windows, flanked by 12-pane sash windows.

Inside, a dog-leg staircase with a wood baluster balustrade rises from the ground to the first floor, located to the left of the main block. The dining room on the ground floor right showcases a Rococo plaster ceiling with a late 19th-century Venetian-style painting depicting a female figure dispensing flowers from a basket held by putti. Numerous 18th-century fireplaces are present, some in the Adam style, including a Rococo painted wood fireplace at the rear centre. Several first-floor rooms feature ovolo moulded panelling, and the second-floor landing has incised plaster decorative bands forming panels, along with an 18th-century curved-fronted cupboard with a metal-lined basin in the corner. A detached service wing, originally built around the early 18th century, is positioned at a right angle to the rear right, constructed of red brick with an old plain-tile half-hipped roof, brick ridge stacks, and five hipped dormers. This wing is single-storey with an attic and features three windows, with 20th-century French windows centrally placed and 12-pane sashes to the sides, all framed by wooden architrave surrounds and cornices, topped with a dentil cornice.

The property was the home of Sir William Blackstone (1723-80), author of "Commentaries on the Laws of England," and later the home of the Haylar family in the mid-19th century.