The Old Priory and Attached Garden Walls

THE OLD PRIORY AND ATTACHED GARDEN WALLS, PRIORY LANE

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1046470
Date first listed:
31-Jan-1952
List Entry Name:
The Old Priory and Attached Garden Walls
Statutory Address:
THE OLD PRIORY AND ATTACHED GARDEN WALLS, PRIORY LANE

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Date:
2005-04-23
Reference:
IOE01/13877/26
Rights:
© Dale Venn. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1046470
Date first listed:
31-Jan-1952
Date of most recent amendment:
20-Jan-1988
List Entry Name:
The Old Priory and Attached Garden Walls
Statutory Address 1:
THE OLD PRIORY AND ATTACHED GARDEN WALLS, PRIORY LANE

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
THE OLD PRIORY AND ATTACHED GARDEN WALLS, PRIORY LANE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:
Oxfordshire
District:
Cherwell (District Authority)
Parish:
Bicester
National Grid Reference:
SP 58423 22118

Details

BICESTER PRIORY LANE SP5822S (West side) 3/96 The Old Priory and attached 31/01/52 garden walls (Formerly listed as The Old Priory)

GV II*

House and garden walls. Possibly C15/early C16, altered C17/C18. Coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; concrete plain-tile roof with brick stacks. Probable 4-unit plan. 2 storeys plus attics. South front has a central C20 roughcast projection but retains, to left, a trefoiled lancet at first floor; other doorways and casements are later insertions. North front has a wide doorway with a stop-chamfered lintel, and at first floor has 3 medieval 2-light windows with label moulds: 2 have cinquefoiled lights, one has uncusped arched lights, and all have lost their central mullions. East gable wall, facing Priory Lane, has a restored 2-light window with label, arched lights and recessed spandrels, and in the gable has a single-light opening with a rectangular head; at ground floor is an inserted C20 stone-mullioned window. Steep-pitched roof has a gable stack to rear plus 2 lateral stacks on the north side, and has one gabled roof dormer. Easternmost bay has casements and a slightly lower roof but is probably contemporary, Interior: noted as having stop-chamfered beams, and a C17 butt-purlin roof with collars, ties and vertical struts to the trusses, straight windbraces below the purlins, and a diagonally-set ridge piece. A 4-centred doorway noted in 1968 is probably within the C20 extension on the north side. The building may have been the hospice of Bicester Priory. The masonry of the garden wall extending from the east gable wall northwards to The Mill (not included) is continuous with that of the house and is probably contemporary (C15/early C16); the wall is approximately 2.5 metres high but appears to have been originally 3 metres to 3.5 metres high. Immediately north of the house is a 2-centre arched doorway in chamfered marlstone ashlar. The section of wall running southwards to the stables (q.v.) is now ruinous. The walls and buildings complete the enclosure formed by the remaining garden walls (q.v.). (V.C.H.: Oxfordshire, Vol.VI, p.16; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, p.455; D. Hinton, "Bicester Priory", 0xoniensia, Vol.33, pp.26-7; D. Watts, A Short History of Bicester Priory, pp.10 and 13).

Listing NGR: SP5842322118

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
243571
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Watts, D J, A Short History of Bicester Priory, (), 10, 13
Salzman, L F, The Victoria History of the County of Oxford, (1959), 16
Pevsner, N, Sherwood, J, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, (1974), 455
Oxoniensia in Oxoniensia, Vol. 33, (), 26-7

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of The Old Priory and Attached Garden Walls

Map

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End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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