The Priory (St Wilfred'S)

The Priory, also known as St Wilfred's, is a Grade II* listed building dating back to 1380. It was rebuilt in the early 19th century and was not marked on an 1785 map, suggesting it was in ruins at that time. The building appears in its current form in an engraving by T. Allom, who died in 1842. Originally a college for the Holy Trinity, it was attached to and contemporary with the Fitzalan Chapel. After being dissolved during the Reformation, it was abandoned and later re-established in the 19th century as a convent for Servite Nuns, and it now serves as an orphanage.

The structure is built from nodular flint with Pulborough stone dressings in the medieval parts and some early 19th-century sections. There are also ashlar dressings and some random Pulborough stone, upper greensand, and clunch in the medieval areas. The building has two storeys and features a crenellated parapet, with machicolation on the west elevation of the south range. It consists of two ranges set at 90 degrees, with a 14th-century wall to another non-existent range, forming three sides of a courtyard, with the fourth side being the south wall of the Fitzalan Chapel.

The south elevation of the south range includes a low tower at the west end and has 13 ranges of two-light, cusped, pointed arched casement windows with diagonal lead glazing bars, all set in oblong surrounds with moulded reveals. There are two doors with pointed arched heads, also set in oblong panels with moulded reveals, and steps leading up to them flanked by iron railings with urn finials. The elevation features two buttresses. The west elevation of the south range has one range of four-light, cusped pointed arched windows set in square recessed panels with moulded reveals, along with four quatrefoil panels between the storeys and one door. The 14th-century wall is pierced by unglazed two-light windows with cusped trefoil heads and has embrasures that are splayed internally.