The Priory Hotel

The Priory Hotel

This rambling building is constructed of local red sandstone conglomerate rubble with freestone dressings and Welsh slate roofs with red brick chimneys. The plan is extremely complex and difficult to interpret, with the main street elevation (north west) a considerable distance from the garden elevation (south west). The building is two storeys throughout.

Street Elevation

The street elevation comprises several distinct sections. On the left is a gabled section with a wing going back, featuring two 2-light windows on the ground floor and a 3-light window above, all of Tudor type with pointed heads to the lights and label moulds. A plinth and quoins mark the left side, while the gable is outlined pediment-like in stone with kneelers and a moulded capstone. The left return has a 2-light window visible on the upper floor; the ground floor is hidden by a rubble wall connecting to No 32 High Street. This wall contains a blocked doorway on the end in red brick.

The next section is a two-bay range with a 2-light window on each floor to the left and the entrance to the right. The entrance is a stone-framed square-headed doorway with a stone-framed 3-light oriel above it, which has a parapet rising above the eaves. There is a low pitch roof with a 3-flue stack at the junction with the wing to the left and a single-flue stack in the rear slope.

To the right is a five-window range along the street with windows placed randomly except for the four furthest to the right. All windows are 2-light as before, varying in size with only the ground-floor ones having label moulds. The roof pitch differs and the ridge is higher than the previous range.

Next comes a long blind range apart from a single introduced 2-light window, with a plain roof and massive chimney stack. Indications of blocked openings are visible. This range was formerly the stables and was previously listed separately with the boundary wall but has now been incorporated into the hotel as a range of bedrooms.

Garden Elevation

The garden elevation, from the right, comprises a gabled wing with a 4-light timber mullion and transom oriel over a similar window. A single-bay range follows with the roof in line with the elevation, featuring a 3-light mullion and transom casement below and above, and a 6 over 3 pane sash in the left return.

A single gabled bay has a modern 2-light window above and below, with a small possibly Tudor niche to the right of the upper window. The left return has a huge lateral stack with four tall brick flues set on the diamond and panelled, the fourth and largest set on the square.

A parallel range set back from the main elevation contains the hotel entrance and a small-paned casement on the ground floor, with three casements above; all are late 20th-century joinery. A massive lateral stack is entirely hidden by creeper.

The long lower range, previously stables now bedrooms, comprises nine bays with doors and windows below and windows above. The windows are 2 and 3-light casements, all late 20th-century, with a massive ridge stack.

Interior

The street entrance opens into a vaulted passage that runs around what was once an open courtyard, now roofed above the ground floor. This courtyard has small traceried windows in 4-centred heads with painted heraldic windows. The vaulted passage dates to the early 19th century, though the windows could be Tudor.

To the left of the entrance is a room to the front containing a Tudor fireplace and oak panelling which may date to around 1600. The staircase is of early 18th-century closed-string open-well form with a moulded walnut handrail, though it appears to have been reconstructed with a Gothic balustrade in the early Victorian period. The staircase is lit by a 5-light mullion and transom window with a stained-glass picture of Roman Caerleon.

The bar and reception area have been almost completely replanned and decorated as part of the late 20th-century hotel alteration. The upper stair hall is roofed by a semi-dome with bossed ribs in a late 18th or early 19th-century Gothic manner. The upper corridor surrounds the small internal courtyard with windows looking onto the roof. The roof structures were not visible at resurvey.