Description

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

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17548011

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

• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)