St John'S Priory With Front Boundary Wall And Railings

St John's Priory, with front boundary wall and railings

A former priory building, possibly originally a guest house, now converted to residential use. The building dates from the late 14th or early 15th century, with floors inserted in the 16th century and modifications carried out in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The exterior is rendered and colour-washed with ashlar dressings, a clay pantiled roof featuring a coped gable to the south and an abutment to the north, and brick chimney stacks.

The plan consists of a former open hall in five bays originally constructed with base crucks and upper crucks. The current layout includes a cross-passage leading to a later straight-flight transverse staircase to the right, and a long narrow rear wing in two stages set at a slight angle to the early range and inflected to align with the adjacent stream.

The exterior presents two storeys with an attic. The front elevation displays four windows: 16-pane sashes in moulded stone architraves, with two on each side of an off-centre doorway to the left. The doorway features a six-panel door set within a Doric pilaster stone surround with plain entablature. Above the doorway is a blocked small opening with flush stone trim. Ridge and gable chimney stacks are visible, along with a plinth, cornice with blocking-course and parapet returned to the coped gable.

The south gable includes a two-light chamfered mullioned window with pointed lights and incised spandrels towards the front, a casement window set lower towards the rear, and two single-light pointed windows in the attic. A 20th-century garage stands against the lower part of this gable. The rear of the main range features a two-light chamfered mullion casement and a five-panel 19th-century door. The wing, which is pantiled and hipped at its outer end, contains two ridge stacks and mostly 20th-century replacement casement windows, though one first-floor three-light window retains moulded mullions and early iron casements.

Interior features include a passage and return paved with large lias flagstones, and a straight staircase with simple splat balusters of uncertain date. The parlour to the left contains three deep chamfered beams and a 20th-century fire surround. The dining room to the right displays an exposed rubble gable-end wall with two small square recesses set low, and a transverse chamfered beam, enclosed from the stairwell by a light partition. Fielded panel doors occur throughout, including a particularly fine four-panel example in the rear wing. At the junction of wing and rear range are the remains of a former stone spiral staircase with visible tread ends.

The first floor has been modified with a corridor across the full width at the rear, separating two bedrooms divided by a large inserted chimney-breast. The room to the right contains a 19th-century fireplace. The second room to the south gable features a fine early boarded floor and a wide stone fire surround with chamfered edge, beneath plastered wall containing a 16th-century fresco in geometrical patterns. The feet of the base crucks, set unusually high, are visible in the bedrooms. Various early doors with L and H hinges remain throughout. A cast-iron spiral stair at the south gable end provides access to the roof.

The roof structure is one of the best preserved medieval structures in Somerset and resembles the Abbey Barn at Glastonbury. It comprises five principal base cruck trusses with superstructure of upper crucks, including one to each gable, and two secondary trusses. The two principal trusses over the hall are chamfered with cusped arch bracing. Three purlins are present, the top one clasped by the collars of the upper crucks, with three ranges of wind-bracing and no ridge purlin. Plates are set square. Wind-bracing members are identified by Arabic numerals, an unusually early use of this numbering system in England. Most rafters are of early date. The wing employs A-frame roof trusses without ties, and two blocked window openings on the north side facing Priory Road are visible.

The front boundary comprises a low stone wall with fleur-de-lys railings and a central matching gate on two steps down, extending across the full width of the main range. The wall sets in at a slight angle to the right to meet the gable-end of the adjoining property, and returns at right angles to the left to meet the front wall of the main range.

The building is a remarkable survival, carefully restored and maintained. Blackening throughout suggests the original use of low partitions. The base cruck trusses invite comparison with the Glastonbury Abbey barns group and Bratton Court near Minehead, with strong similarity also noted to the King's Head on High Street. An original deed of 1738 is retained within the dining room, and the property is said to be documented by one of 33 extant deeds. Although a late 14th-century date is typically attributed to the building, some sources suggest it may be earlier.