Ewenny Priory (house)

Ewentry Priory (house)

This is a substantial Georgian-style house, built on the site of a medieval priory. The main block faces south with rear wings enclosing a service court, which occupies the former cloister garth of the Priory. The building is of grey stone, rendered, with exposed stone dressings and slate roofs. The front range has rendered stacks; the west wing is of yellow brick. The main block rises 2 storeys over a basement, with a shallow-pitch roof, parapet, and cornice.

The south-facing main frontage has five windows. A central bay breaks forward with steps up to a later porch and round-arched entrance doorway with double-panelled doors. The windows have rendered architraves with keystones and bracketed sills with low iron railing panels. Ground and first-floor windows are 6/6-pane horned sashes; basement windows are smaller sashes.

The right (asymmetrical) elevation features a later bay window with a tripartite plate-glass horned sash window above. Behind this stands the lower east wing with pitched roof and plate-glass horned sashes with similar surrounds; a downpipe is dated 1872. The left elevation has three windows, behind which extends a long six-window west wing rising three storeys, with a top storey added in the late 19th century and a wooden conservatory. Windows throughout have similar architraves with keystones and varied glazing, including 8/8-pane sashes.

The north elevation contains a round-headed moulded medieval window, putlogs, and a blocked two-light mullioned window. The service court features a shallow chamfered arched entrance with studded wooden gates and a cobbled floor. Service rooms line both sides with wide panelled doors. On the west wing within the service court, to the left of the archway stands a 4-light sub-medieval window with hollow chamfering and hood mould, a similar 3-light window to the right, and a smaller (restored) 2-light window above. Later windows occupy the storey above. The rear of the main block has a small arched window at first-floor level and later chiefly sash windows, including a large 16/12-pane staircase sash window. A rear entrance below features a wide 6-panelled door. A lean-to against the south wall of the priory contains a range of round-arched boarded openings.

The interior is particularly fine and well-preserved from the early 19th century, retaining original doors, doorframes, and fireplaces with rich plasterwork throughout.

The entrance hall features a fine plaster cornice and frieze with an elliptical archway (panelled soffit and jambs) leading to the staircase hall. The staircase is a cantilevered stone construction in a D-shaped well, top-lit, with a trellis-pattern metal balustrade and an elliptical lantern with fine plasterwork to frieze and ceiling.

To the right of the entrance hall, the sitting room has an enriched cornice, dado-rail, a doorcase with swag frieze, and an early 19th-century fireplace. Across the hall, the morning room features an enriched cornice, a doorcase with urns to the cornice, and a classicising fireplace.

To the right of the staircase hall lies the dining room, with an enriched cornice and Adamesque ceiling centrepiece. An elliptical-arched recess on the west wall is flanked by doorways with classicising doorcases, above which are rectangular panels. The walls have panels framed by raised floral plasterwork, and a polychrome marble fireplace.

Opposite the dining room, a doorway leads to a second stair and transverse corridor. At the head of the main stairs, the landing has an enriched cornice and frieze with an elliptical archway; most first-floor rooms retain good doors, doorcases, and simple cornices.

In the north end first-floor room of the west wing, the jambs of a medieval arch-headed window survive, complete with flanking shafts, annulets, and water-holding bases.