Priory Hotel

The Priory Hotel is a Grade II* listed hotel located on High Street in Whitchurch. Originally built in the 15th century, it underwent alterations in the mid-16th century and was renovated in the early 20th century. The structure features a timber frame with some old brick infill on the ground floor, while the rest has been renewed. It has a coursed rubble stone plinth and a tiled roof, with flanking chimneys that each have two square shafts set diagonally; the left chimney is made of thin brick on an external stone stack, while the right is from the 19th to 20th century. There is also a smaller brick chimney in the center.

The hotel is two storeys tall with cellars and has a jettied first floor that projects over the front on beam ends. It consists of six bays, with early 20th-century diamond-leaded casements: three 3-light and two 4-light windows with cornice blind cases on the ground floor, and five 2-light and two 3-light windows on the first floor. The cellars have small barred wooden casements in the bays to the right of center. The entrance features a central old board and stud door in a moulded wooden frame with a square head. To the right, there is a matching 19th to 20th-century extension with a jettied first floor that is set back. The rear of the building includes additional 18th and 19th-century stone and brick extensions.

Inside, bays two and three were originally an open hall, with a fine central truss that has hollow chamfered timbers and large curved braces forming a wide two-centred arch, featuring four-centred tracery in the spandrels. A floor was inserted in the 16th century, and the lower room has finely moulded cross beams and a cornice. The three bays to the right have chamfered spine beams and heavy joists, with one curved brace supporting a tie beam. The central fireplace features re-used and reproduction 17th-century panelling, and similar panelling has been re-sited in the 19th to 20th-century entrance lobby to the far right.