Franciscan Friary

Franciscan Friary

This L-shaped range in Collegiate Gothic style stands as a substantial medieval friary complex. It comprises two storeys with attics and basements, constructed of snecked grey stone with sandstone dressings beneath steeply pitched slate roofs featuring some fish-scale tiles. The church to the south forms the third side of a courtyard open to the west.

The Main East-West Range

The south front of the east-west range is articulated by four gables positioned over the first floor windows. These are flat-headed with square hoodmoulds under relieving arches. The left window is three-light with Tudor-arched heads to each light, while the others have two similar lights flanking a blind panel. Some small-pane glazing is retained, and small pierced quatrefoils sit within the gables. The lower storey is divided into eight bays by tall angle buttresses. Each bay contains a tall two-light window under a segmental-pointed head with a transom and heavy cusping to the lights. The basement storey has two-light openings with flat heads. A diagonal buttress reinforces the southwest angle of the range. The architectural detailing throughout includes a string course at first floor level, buttresses with offsets, raised stone copings to gables, and Perpendicular-style tracery.

The wide gable end displays windows to the lower storey on the left and centre, with a blank shield bearing tracery above in a square stone surround to the right. The first floor contains a flat-headed four-light window with cusping and a transom, beneath which runs a frieze with four blank shields and a fifth centrally placed above the window. To its left is a two-light window with flat head and transom. The attic is lit by a two-light window under a flat head, each light having a cusped ogee head, flanked by small quatrefoils. A stone end stack with three diagonally-set shafts rises from the gable.

The rear of the east-west range features five gables over the first floor windows. Between the third and fourth gables from the left is a lateral stack. To its left, the bays are further divided at ground floor level by tall angle buttresses, each narrow bay containing a tall flat-headed two-light window with transom and hoodmould under a relieving arch. To the right of the stack are two identical windows without a dividing buttress. A single-storey lean-to adjoins the right bay as part of the linking range. A metal fire-escape staircase of late twentieth-century date rises over the lean-to to a late twentieth-century door, which replaces the right light of the first floor window.

The Tower

A two-stage tower occupies the angle of the ranges, supporting a tall octagonal spirelet on stepped offsets. A string course divides the two stages, and a diagonal buttress strengthens the angle. Narrow trefoiled lights appear to the west side at ground and first floor levels. Small cross-angle windows sit between the tower and the east-west range, that to the upper storey corbelled. At first floor level in the south wall is a statue within a trefoil-arched niche. Towards the top of the tower on the south and west sides are clocks, each within a square stone surround under a hoodmould. The octagonal spirelet has a louvre opening to each face with cusped ogee tracery, and a pyramidal roof with lucarnes.

The North-South Range

The adjoining north-south range faces west, with a roof line stepping down to the right. At ground floor level on the left are windows at the centre and right matching those of the east-west range, with a single light to the left in the same style. The string course continues across this range. Above is a gable offset to the right over a three-light first floor window, to whose left is a small two-light window beneath the eaves. Two skylights pierce the roof pitch, and a stone ridge stack rises from this section.

The lower part to the right contains three windows and lacks a string course. A central pointed-arched doorway with a planked door is flanked by small two-light windows, their lights having trefoiled heads under segmental-pointed arches without hoodmoulds. A similar window sits above the door, flanked by single lights. A gabled attic dormer to the centre contains a two-light window, and a small ridge stack rises from the right end.

The rear of the north-south range shows a higher section to the right, continuing in the same style as the front. This includes a gable offset to the left over a first floor window and a four-light window to its right. Below is a doorway with a Tudor-arched head and a two-light flat-headed window to its right. Two skylights pierce the roof pitch.

The East Gable End

The east gable end has small single lights to the first floor and an ornate two-light window to the attic matching the west gable. At ground floor level adjoins a single-storey link to the 1899 addition, which has a three-light window under a segmental-pointed head to the south.

The Additional Range

An additional range to the east has undergone alteration and is two-storey with an attic clerestorey that may be a later addition. The two bays to the right have been rebuilt in red brick. The attic contains three-light uPVC windows. The first floor has corbelled lateral stacks, now truncated, and flat-headed two-light windows with a sill band and angle buttress to the left. The lower storey windows are closely spaced, two-light under segmental-pointed heads with transoms. The rear side has a tall lateral stack offset to the right and truncated stacks to the left and centre, with four angle buttresses with offsets and irregularly set flat-headed windows to ground and first floors.

Interior

Partial access to the interior reveals a corridor running through the building from the west towards the southeast and into the church. It has quadripartite vaulting to the ceiling and a tile floor.