NHER 12227 (Building record) - The Priory, 4 and 6 London Road

The Priory, 4 and 6 London Road.

November 1972. Listed, Grade II.
Listing Description excerpt:
""17th century and later. No 4 brick, carstone, tiled roof, two storey and attics. Irregular plan, sash and casement windows. Some blocked brick mullion windows. Stepped gables at west. Brick chimneys with octagonal shaft and moulded base. Front gabled wing with rustications at ground and 1st floors.
Front wall, carstone with brick cope, and plinth, 4 ft [1.2m] high.
Lower wing at south east includes modern shop at corner, east, No 6, two storey and attic, mainly blank front to road, old tile roof. Knit gable, first floor band...carstone with red brick dressings.
Nos 4 & 6 form a group with Nos 5 & 7 [NHER 47136]""
Information from (S1).
Please consult the National Heritage List for England (S1) for the current listing details.
P. Watkins (HES), 18 July 2022.

A 17th-century wall to the west of 4 and 6 London Road was also listed Grade II in 1972. This is now recorded separately as NHER 66005.
P. Watkins (HES), 18 July 2022.

February 1977. Field Observation.
Visited by E. Rose (NAU).
Late 16th or early 17th cent. North gable stepped, on ground floor a central blocked window with three brick mullions. Above this on first floor corbelled base of a chimney stack, with brick-mullioned windows either side. At second floor level are the usual two tiny brick windows, blocked, but these are purely for ornament here - so small as to be ridiculous, and actually set in the chimney stack itself, which has its outer skin narrowed to make it appear to pass between them! The stack rises to a moulded transition to an octagonal top, incongruously crowned by a modern pot. East gable wall has rusticated brick quoins. Whole has been recently restored, 19th-cent accumulations at ground floor level removed, and roof is still being retiled.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU), 16 February 1977. Information from record card (S2).
P. Watkins (HES), 18 July 2022.

Local legend says that this building gets its name because it stands on the site of a Benedictine priory. The 1840 tithe map shows the
real reason - the field to the south was called Prior's Land after its owner.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU). Information from record card (S2).
P. Watkins (HES), 18 July 2022.

October 1997. Field Observation.
Visited again by E. Rose (NLA).
The Priory, 4 London Road.
Rather grand carstone and brick house of second half of 16th century. Garden front replaced by sash window range; added wing to east. Both probably around 1700. Interior much altered. 19th- to 20th-century outbuildings. To south-east an annexe, possibly a carriage house, around 1700 has tunnel vaulted undercroft of type elsewhere dated to around 1400.
See report (S3) in file for further details. The observations made in 1997 are also summarised in (S4).
E. Rose (NLA), 3 November 1997.

However, the undercroft may be a local style of the 17th century - see (S3).
E. Rose (NLA), 17 October 2003.