The Priory

The Priory is a large house with details reminiscent of the 16th century. It is constructed primarily of rubble stone, with some coursed and tooled sections, and ashlar dressings. The roof is stone-tiled, featuring kneelers, some sprocketed eaves, a large ridge and lateral stacks, and clustered angled corniced chimneys with decorative pots. The windows are highly varied, with many 4-centred arched lights set in rectangular stone frames, arranged in multiples of two, three, and four lights, often with hoodmoulds above. The garden frontages feature more elaborate windows with tracery and cusped heads. Most windows retain quarries set in iron frames.

The building has a complex plan and deliberately asymmetrical multi-gabled elevations. A western section of the house is roofless due to fire damage. The north elevation, progressing from west to east, comprises a long range with two very large first-floor windows featuring cusped heads divided into two tiers by a transom. Ground floor windows are somewhat smaller: one is a 4-light window with moulded mullions to the right, and to the left, a group of three 4-centred arched lights. A similar window is found in the gable above. A low, single-storey bay, likely added later, separates the eastern and western sections.

To the left of this bay, the eastern section has a projecting gable with multiple-light windows on each floor and a small apex light. The central section has similar, smaller windows and a blocked Tudor-arched doorway. The east-facing side elevation has a tall, chamfered doorway with run-out stops.

The garden (south) elevation has a deeply projecting gable of tooled stone at the eastern end, featuring a tall, shallow ground-floor bay window with five lights and a quatrefoil parapet. Above this is a 4-light window under a shallow hoodmould, with a sundial above, and an apex light, all with tall 4-centred arched lights. A central recessed section is followed by a less projecting gable with triple and quadruple 4-centred arched lights. An apparently added, now roofless porch with a Tudor arch and decorative spandrels stands before a tall, narrow gable with small lights at variable levels, possibly a former staircase bay.

To the west are two parallel, separately gabled cross wings, projecting towards the west. The outer wing also contributes to the south frontage with a two-story canted bay. The most elaborate windows are on the west elevation: one to the right is a shallow bay window with a deeply hipped pitched roof and five tall, cusped lights. There are no windows above this bay. The gable end to the left has windows at three levels, the main one to the first floor being an oriel type canted bay window, with each face containing a double cusped light and pierced tracery, as well as a very deep sloping sill. A recessed linking bay provides a tall 3-light window with a transom.