Description

KINGS LANGLEY LANGLEY HILL
TL 00 SE (West side)

7/159 Priory Remains (now part
22.10.52 of The New School) and
attached buildings

- II*

Buildings and walls of former Dominican Friary with attached buildings.
C14 (Friary founded by Edward II c.1308), C18 extensions to N range,
extensions to W range after c.1910 for the former Priory School. Now all
in domestic use with a chapel on the 1st floor of W range. W range and
wall extending to S of flint with stone dressings. N range of plastered
flint with stone dressings to lower floor but timber framed jettied
upper floor with white plastered infill panels on N side. Steep old red
tile roofs. Red brick C18 rebuilt E front and S extension of N range and
2 timber framed dark weatherboarded extensions with tiled roofs and bell
turret at its W end linking to W range. SE extension of W range
roughcast with stone mullioned windows and red tile roof. NE extension
to W range roughcast with jetty and hipped tiled roof. The c.1910
extensions on S side of N range have a formerly open 3-bay gallery of
timber with alpine style cusped vertical boards as balustrade over a
timber framed ground floor with 3 cross-windows below a continuously
glazed band, with a red brick base and brick panels between windows. An
L-shaped group generally of 2 storeys with later buildings linking 2
separate medieval buildings. (1) A long narrow building in the W range
formerly called King John's Bakehouse with evidence for early doors or
windows on all sides but possibly having a range formerly running
eastwards from S end of its E side. A wall divides the building near the
middle and the ground floor of the N part is arcaded on the W with 3
large depressed C14 arches with plain splays dying against the sides of
buttresses (C20 cusped stone tracery inserted). There is a diagonal
buttress at NW corner but a pair of corner buttresses at SW. Since the
survey for VCH in 1908 blocked windows have been opened and some
matching windows inserted on W 1st floor over the 1st and 2nd arches
from the N. These light the chapel with limewashed flint walls and 3-bay
crown-post roof with chamfered cambered tie-beams, chamfered cornice
along walls, chamfered square crown-posts with heavy curved braces to
collar purlin. Same roof continues over S half of building. (2) A long
narrow building in N range called The Gatehouse with a large blocked
stone archway, continuously moulded, off centre in the masonry of the
tall lower storey of the N side. A parallel thick wall is pierced by the
doorway between parlour and study in the C18 house formed at the E end
of this range. The timber framed 1st floor jettied on bullnosed joists
on the N may have also been jettied on the S. Large panelling with
curved tension bracing and flush mullioned leaded windows. Interior has
arched braces to tie-beams of crown-post roof with braces to collar
purlin. C18 house has asymmetrical E front 2 storeys, 2 windows and
heavy framed boarded door in middle. Tall 2-light casement windows.
Large external gable chimney. Good panelled early C18 rooms on ground
floor. Medieval framing exposed inside. Stone quoins at NE angle. The
land surrounding the building is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
(VCH(1908)238-40: RCHM(1911)134 no.2: Pevsner(1977)217).

Listing NGR: TL0647702700

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17542797

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)