More information : [Area centred TQ 72415887] The precinct wall of the friary appears to date from the 15th c. It is pentagonal in plan and was entered through a fine gatehouse of late 15th c. date. This structure has a porter's lodging on one side and what appears to have been a prison on the other. The gatehouse was remodelled in the last decade of the 16thc.(1)
A door in the gatehouse is inscribed 'J(ohn) S(edley) 1590'. There is a local tradition of a filled-in moat surrounding the later buildings.Walls across its line have relieving arches and there is a buried bridge under the road to the back entrance. (2)
Elizabethan gatehouse. (3)
The precinct wall is of ragstone, 3.0m to 50m in height, with a coping of brick. It has been much restored and rebuilt, but doubtless stands upon the original foundations everywhere. It encloses the friary buildings on the river, west and north sides, and also fully encloses a large kitchen garden to the north-east. A wall along the west side of the drive up to the gatehouse parallel with the west wall of the kitchen garden appears to be contemporary with the other walls. No trace remains of the eastern precinct wall which must have linked the kitchen garden wall with the river bank. Its course is suggested by a low bank running north-south on line with the eastern wall of the kitchen garden, but no store is visible. GPs AO/59/8/3 from south 8/4 from north of Gatehouse. TQ72395893. The gatehouse is as described above and is in fine condition. No traces of a moat (Authy 2) were seen during erambulation. (4)
Checked and correct. (5)
Gatehouse and walls to the north and east of the Friars. Grade I. Gatehouse. C15 with late C16 alterations. [For full description see list]. (6)
Approaching the friary from the landward site one arrives first at a two storey gatehouse, with four-centred inner and outer arches. Cross-slits low down either side of the outer arch show that fortification was not omitted. Late 16th century windows mullioned and with one transom. A small round-headed doorway with an architrave-cornice on dentils has John Sedley's initials and the date 1590 in the spandrels. (7)
The gateway is medieval. (8) |