The Priest House And Adjoining Range, Farleigh Hungerford Castle

The Priest House and adjoining range at Farleigh Hungerford Castle is a house, formerly a farmhouse, now managed as a monument. It was built by 1430 and extended northwards in the 17th century, with a 19th-century restoration, and extensive repairs completed around December 1983. The construction is of random rubble, using sole coursed Doulting stone. The building has a stone slate gabled roof with coping and a finial on the south gable, and an ashlar stone chimney stack with tabling and a moulded cap marks the line of the north gable. The building abuts the east curtain wall of the Barbecan, and its east elevation rises from a defensive bank, featuring a cornice and embattled parapet. The original 2-storey, 3-bay, 2-window elevation incorporates an entrance through a moulded doorway in the north gable, now part of the 17th-century extension. There are 2-light, 16th-century moulded stone mullioned windows with casements. Two 2-chamfered, pointed arch door openings, likely dating to the 17th century, now have 20th-century vertical boarded and studded doors.

The interior likely comprised two rooms on each floor, with lobbies connected by a winding staircase in the southwest corner, now replaced by 20th-century stairs. The ground floor includes a central hall and a smaller room previously divided by wooden partitions. The first floor has four bays supported on 3 stop chamfered cross beams, with the central beam featuring arched sprockets. Evidence of painted decoration survives. A medieval fireplace is in the east wall of the hall, and a 16th-century fireplace is in the north wall, under a flat, keyed, chamfered arch with a timber relieving beam, an elliptical arch to the right. There is also a latrine shaft, and the southeast window retains gudgeons and slots for wooden shutters. The first floor includes a barrel vaulted plaster ceiling, with two curve braced, collar trusses exposed, a moulded rib piece and exposed plates; evidence of wooden partitions is also present.

The Priest House was originally built for Sir Walter Hungerford to house two Chantry priests, separated from the Chantry Chapel by a narrow paved courtyard. Adjoining the north gable is a 17th-century extension, built of random rubble Doulting stone with a stone slate gabled roof and two ashlar stone chimney stacks with tabling and moulded caps. It has a 2-storey, 3-window elevation, with an entrance on the right through a chamfered stone framed door and 2-light, hollow chamfered stone mullioned windows. The interior of the extension was undergoing extensive repair at the time of the 1983 survey and was therefore unavailable for inspection. The site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (Somerset County No. 4).