Description

HIGH STREET
1.
5403 (east side)
No 49 and No 51
The Ancient Priors
(Minters Restaurant
A Louis Coiffeur)
(formerly listed as
No 47, The Square)
TQ 2636 NE 5/24 21.6.48
II* GV
2.
Timber-framed hall-house of circa 1450 with L-wing added circa 1530 and modern brick wing
later. Restored in 1927. Two storeys timber-framed with Horsham slab roof. Four bays.
Front elevation has projecting first floors on brackets with gables above with decorative
curved braces. Front elevation mainly close-studded. Side elevation square framing.
Modern casement windows but blocked original window openings remain. Later shopfronts.
Doorcase has a flat arch with shield in spandrels. On one of these is a crown of
antique shape, 2 fleur de lys seen sideways, a third in the middle and a leaf between.
The hall runs north to south with a solar and chamber beneath it either end.
The hall is 23ft long of 2 bays, each about 10ft long. Open timber
roof with cambered tie beam, arch-braced collar beam, moulded wall plates and curved
mid-braces. A chimney and floor were inserted in the C16. Two C16 stone fireplaces
in the ground and first floor rooms at the north end. A 2-storey wing, probably a
kitchen wing of about 1530 projects eastward from the south end. Two staircases,
are hung a heavy Jacobean rail with turned balusters. A complete and well-preserved
example of a C15 hall-house. This may have been the Pre-Reformation Priest's house.
Reputed connexions with smuggling.
(See V C H Sussex vii 144.
Sussex Archaeological Collections Vol LV (1912) pp 12-16).

Listing NGR: TQ2678836580

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Ancient Priors at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q4752905

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

• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)