Priory Manor

Priory Manor, Kington St Michael

A house of 15th to 17th century date, built of rubble stone with stone slate roof and ashlar stacks, incorporating the remains of a Benedictine nunnery founded in the 12th century. The building is two storeys and attic in plan, arranged basically as an L-shape, with the main range forming the former prioress's lodging and guest hall on the west side of what was once the cloister, and the south wing comprising half of the former south range.

The main west front features a coped north gable, three ridge stacks, and a roof hipped at the south-west angle. The left bay has buttresses on each side and a cusped 2-light upper window above a renewed cusped 4-light, both with hoodmoulds. The next two bays, with a buttress beyond, are topped by a large gable and contain mullion-and-transom windows with hoodmoulds: 2-light and 3-light above, 2-light and 4-light below, with ovolo moulding except for the hollow-moulded first-floor 2-light. To the right stands a large gabled porch with a stone slate roof and a depressed-arched moulded doorway, though the gable is rebuilt. Adjacent is a 15th-century cusped 2-light window with hood, above a similar 2-light. The end bay contains a 20th-century timber-mullion window on each floor. The south range shows two bays of 20th-century timber-mullion windows to the left, one bay of 2-light mullion windows with hollow moulding above and ovolo moulding below with iron opening lights, then a large outside chimney, and to the right one bay of single lights. The rear of the south range retains an original 2-light ovolo-moulded first-floor window above a 3-light hollow-moulded window, with a blocked segmental arch above a 3-light window to the left; single light to the right over a 2-light, with 20th-century single lights in the angle. The main range rear has a 20th-century enclosed gabled porch and two 20th-century two-lights on each floor. At the north end is an L-plan lower range projecting east, with a coped north gable and stack. Its west front shows a ground-floor ovolo-moulded 2-light with hoodmould and a first-floor single light with a very small cusped light. The north side retains one first-floor 15th-century 2-light with hoodmould exposed beside 20th-century lean-to additions. The east end has a low pointed chamfered doorway and moulded single light. The south side has a stair projection in the angle to the main range with the roof carried down over it, and features a quatrefoil light.

Interior features include some cambered tie-beams and deep coved timber wall-plates, though roofs are not generally visible. In the main range, the north-end room has a Tudor-arched stone fireplace with ornate moulded shelf on console brackets, much renewed. The room to the south, in the former hall, contains three deep chamfered beams and a large stone chamfered Tudor-arched fireplace with shelf, a 20th-century 17th-century-style stair, and a stone Tudor-arched west door. The room to the south of this has a small moulded Tudor-arched fireplace with shelf and a Tudor-arched doorway. In the south range, the main ground-floor room has a timber-lintel side-wall fireplace and four chamfered beams. A 17th-century oak winding stair occupies the angle to the north range, while an earlier stone winding stair is built into the wall of that range.

Historical context: A priory existed on the site from 1155, and a house for paupers was built in 1221. A cloister with a chapel on the north side existed; the chapel was still standing in the late 17th century when John Aubrey drew the west front of the house. The property was sold to the Taylor family in 1556, to the Tyndale family in 1628, and to R. Sherwin in 1677; the front gable and other alterations were probably made for Sherwin.