Details
ST4717
6/320
STOKE SUB HAMDON CP
NORTH STREET (West side)
The Priory, or Parsonage Farmhouse
(Formerly listed as The Priory or Parsonage Farmhouse (Ruined portion))
19.4.61
GV
I
(Chantry House on O.S. Map). Originally the College Buildings of the Beauchamp Chantry, now private house. C14 et seq. Ham stone roughly cut and squared, ashlar dressings; Welsh slate roofs over stone slate base courses, costly with coped gables; stone slab chimney stacks. 'L'-plan. Mostly two storeys. East, roadside front, largely C17, of 4+4+1 bays. Southern section has lower roof, with a blank end gable to bay one, then mostly ovolo-mould mullioned windows in wave-mould recesses, under separate labels; two-light lower bay two, three-light lower bay three, and upper bay four, this latter being set into a coped gable; to upper bay two two-light chamfer-mullioned window without label: central unit taller, with mostly ovolo-mould mullioned windows in wave-mould recesses, most with hands rather than labels; four-light upper bay one, three-light upper bays three and four, one-light to upper bay two and lower bay three, and single-light lower bay four; to lower bay one a three-light hollow-chamfered mullioned window in chamfered recess: roof set lower to final north bay, which has a three-light ovolo-mould mullioned window above, without label, and a blocked window below; all windows have rectangular-leaded panes, with some iron-framed opening lights: other features this elevation include buttresses to left of bay one and right of bays two and four, centre block; to lower bay two in this block an ovolo-moulded cambered-arched doorway in wave-mould rectangular recess, with incised spandrils, the opening now blocked with a stall three-light window: to end north gable a bell turret of unusual detail, with stall side openings in the rectangular turret, and a cantilevered
cover on the south side. North elevation probably c1444, prompted by Bishop Beakynton; five bays, of which bays one and three are projecting and gabled; bay one has three-light ovolo-mould mullioned window below, complete with label, above a trefoil cusped light in rectangular recess, with an ogee recess in the gable, pointed arch doorway in return; lower bay two has a two-light ovolo-mould window with label; thereafter the building is tall single-storey, with projecting porch with parvise over to bay three, having angled corner buttresses, moulded pointed arched doorway and trefoil-cusped light in rectangular recess above; bay four has a six-light hollow-chamfered mullioned window with label, four-centre arched lights with incised spandrils, above a shallow five-light window with ovolo-mould mullions, no label, the centre light being blocked; buttresses between bays four/five and then a three-light ovolo mould window to lower bay five; these last three bays have stone slate roofs, set slightly lower than main block. Inside, the north bay with bell-turret had the former chapel, and the west wing has a single- storyed open hall, which is unplastered, with mostly an earth floor, and has arch-braced collar-truss roof trusses with double purlins and arched windbraces, a blocked cambered-arched fireplace in south wall, and a gallery over a through passage at the east end; on south-west corner an extension with ovolo-mould windows, doorway and fireplace, but with ogee-arched niche in east wall, which may represent the priest's parlour: at the east end traces of a jointed cruck truss remain. The remainder of the house not inspected, but reported are a surviving piscina in the upper chapel wing, some panelling with initials TS 1585 (for Thomas Strode, who converted sole of the former service rooms into living room), and evidence that the three south bays represent part of the medieval priest's kitchen then detached from the main house. This surviving part of the college apparently the Provost's Lodging; before 1304 it may have been the rector's house: after 1518 it become a farm, which it remained until c1960. Major restorations carried out in 1967, and the house is now the property of the National Trust. Scheduled Ancient Monument, (Somerset County No 196).
(VCH vol III, 1974; leaflet published by National Trust, undated; Pantin, W.A, "Chantry
Priest's Houses and other Medieval lodgings, Medieval Archaeology 3, 1959, 216-258; VAG notes, Unpublished SRO, September 1972).
Listing NGR: ST4736017423
