The Priory (Ware Town Council Offices and Community Centre), Ware, Hertfordshire

Description

WARE TOWN

TL3514SE HIGH STREET
829-1/9/137 (South side)
08/05/50 The Priory (Ware Town Council
Offices and Community Centre)

Medieval Franciscan friary, later house, then local government
offices, restored as Ware Town Council Offices, Community
Centre and restaurant. C14 and mid to late C15, becoming a
private house 1544 after dissolution, altered mid C18, rebuilt
after 1849 (George Godwin, Architect), and extended late C19.
Converted to offices for the former Ware Urban District
Council 1920s and restored as local Council Offices and
Community Centre 1993-94 (Donald Insall and Associates,
Architects).

MATERIALS: chalk blocks, stucco covered, part flint rubble
with ashlar quoins, gabled and hipped roofs, covered with old
tiles (northern and eastern slopes) and machine tiles
(southern slopes). Brick chimneystacks, C18 and C19.

PLAN/EXTERIOR: the surviving complex comprises the following
buildings of the Ware Friary: together with the southern
range, the frater behind and over the cloister (now the east
wing) and the west or 'guestern' wing, above and extending
west of the cloister. 2 storeys and attics with north facing
gable, and a set back left hand range, creating an L-plan with
an attached right hand range, extending in line with the north
front. Investigation by the Hertfordshire Archaeological Trust
during the building operations in 1993-94 confirmed that the
west wing was the first built, and its surviving fabric was
consistent with the founding date of 1338. The frater and
cloister were subsequently butted against the west wing,
entailing the removal of a projecting oriel on the first floor
of its east front. This building phase appears to date from
mid C15.

The first floor of the left hand (east) range has 6 sash
windows with glazing bars, recessed in reveals, ground floor
with 5 segmental-headed late C15 windows, second from right
blocked, flanked by 2 partly blocked. These windows mark the
north arcade of the cloisters, with deep hollow moulded jambs
and extrados inside and out. Triple light, moulded mullions,
with cusped trefoil lancet heads. A similar window on the left
hand east elevation is a copy made by Godwin c1850, while
another on the north wing immediately right of the entrance
was opened up after 1867. 2 further arched openings, without
tracery, remain within the entrance hall in the south-west
corner of the cloister. 2 attic dormers with sashes, under
hipped old tiled roofs. The left hand (east) elevation of the
central range, has one first floor sash window and one dormer
with sashes under a hipped old tiled roof. Entrance porch in
re-entrant, by Godwin c1850, single storey with lead flat
roof, stucco faced, reproduces hollow and roll moulding from
cloister windows, with re-set early C17 door, with studded
nails, raised mouldings and 2 central raised panels. Raised
lancet windows with leaded central lights, left and right of
doorway. Central projecting gable has 2 recessed sash windows
with glazing bars on first floor (with heavy mid C18 quadrant
bars), 3 recessed sash windows with glazing bars on ground
floor and one nearly flush set attic sash window, with glazing
bars. Right hand (west) wing stucco faced. First floor with 3
widely spaced two-light windows, with moulded mullions and
cusped trefoil heads, with moulded jambs and moulded flat
heads, beneath projecting dripmoulds; centre and right hand
window appear to be heavily restored C15 originals, left hand
a copy by Godwin. Ground floor has 5 irregularly spaced
windows of similar type, left hand window immediately below
sill of first floor window, remainder lower set, and longer
than on first floor. The second and third from left may retain
some C15 fabric, the remainder are copies by Godwin. All
windows contain recessed wooden casements with glazing bars,
and pointed heads. Below ground floor left hand window is a
cusped quatrefoil opening, with an iron grille, C15, chalk,
said to be an alms window. Angle buttresses at west end of
range.

South elevation, largely stucco-covered, facing towards the
river, has left hand (west) wing set back, former walled
kitchen yard, cleared and rebuilt 1993-94 with single storey
kitchen suite and large projecting steel-framed conservatory
to form restaurant. First floor has 3 first floor restored
2-light C15 windows, with moulded jambs and head, mullion and
trefoil cusped heads, under projecting moulded dripmoulds,
projecting buttress with offset cap between second and third
windows. C19 and C20 alterations on ground floor, with central
pointed-arched doorway. Central gable; first floor with 3
recessed sash windows with glazing bars, attic with flush-set
sash windows with exposed boxes. Ground floor has 4-light
mullion and transom central casement window, in earlier
opening, with splayed reveals to interior, and one recessed
sash window with glazing bars. Right hand (east) wing first
floor has 3 widely spaced recessed sash windows with glazing
bars. Ground floor has garden entrance at left; recessed
semi-circular half-glazed late C18 door, with glazing bars and
'Gothick' pointed heads, with original hinged shutter
internally. 2 mid C19 French windows with divided glazing, and
twin fanlights above transom, and at right, restored C15
window with 2-lights, beneath flat projecting dripmould head.
Projecting buttresses with 2 offsets at left hand adjoining
gable and to right of garden door, and vestige of large
projecting chimney (demolished by Godwin c1850), with 4
splayed offsets. Right hand 2 storey southward projection
remodelled 1892. Projecting 5 sided corner oriel window at
first floor with moulded stone corbel, projecting bold
plastered cove, plastered spandrel, with incised ornament, and
date, casement window, with glazing bars, and transom, incised
ornament above head, with initials 'R W' (Robert Walters,
owner), and polygonal tiled roof above. First floor plastered,
pebbledashed and colourwashed. Ground floor has flint rubble
facing, and ashlar quoins, plinth, window surrounds, and first
floor band. At extreme right is billiard room, built 1892 for
Robert Walters. Single storey, with projecting multi-light
mullioned bay windows, old tiled roof with bonnet hips, and
timber, glazed central lantern rooflight. East projecting
tile-roofed porch added 1994.

INTERIOR: the entrance hall contains the south-west corner of
the cloisters, with 2 segmental-arched openings, with deep
hollow mouldings, meeting on a corner pier. At the rear of the
pier is a C14 3-centred arch, with chamfered head, supported
on a carved grotesque and a moulded corbel. The door to the
store room to the south is set within a chamfered pointed arch
in chalk masonry. To the left, off the entrance hall, the
large meeting room (the Main Hall) has the range of partly
blocked mullioned windows of the cloisters, with C19 painted
and stained glass in lead cames. Initials 'H G' in roundel in
head of second window from left indicate [Martin] Hadsley
Gosselin, who restored The Priory from 1850. The long beam in
the ceiling reveals the position of the inner wall of the
cloister, part of which survived until early C20, and was
removed by Ware UDC after 1920. During the 1993-94 restoration
traces of a trompe l'oeil Gothic decorative scheme were found
on the north and west walls and have been stabilised and left
exposed. A fragment of C15 painting has been exposed in the
south window embrasure. To the south of the entrance hall is
the principal stair, mid C18, fitted alongside a
semi-basement, used as a wine-cellar in C19. The stair is
dogleg in plan, rising between walls to the first
half-landing, thereafter open string pattern, with brackets
and moulded tread nosings and returns, column on vase
balusters, and ramped moulded handrails. On the first floor
landing a stone window head above the later sash window was
exposed during the building work of 1993-94.

To right of entrance hall is the principal room of the west
wing, the dining room of the house C18, and used by Ware UDC
as a Council Chamber from 1920-1974. Large triple-light C15
window restored early C20, three sash windows with shutters.
C18 panelling, raised and fielded, moulded dado rail, heavy
moulded wood cornice. Chimney-piece with a shouldered
architrave fire surround, moulded shelf, and overmantel
flanked by fluted Tuscan columns, with fluted fascia above,
and modillion cornice. C19 ceiling of octagonal panels defined
by moulded frames. Adjoining room, former Mayor's Parlour, has
vernacular C18 panelling, brought in by Godwin, c1850, from a
Somerset church. Built-in safe by Charles Wells, Ware, dated
1849. The remainder of the west wing was subdivided by Godwin
into service rooms. The central wall subdividing this wing is
of medieval origin, and contains a pointed arched doorway with
plain chamfered jamb and arch, plastered, and forming a
cupboard recess. This appears to have been rebuilt by Godwin
from fabric demolished elsewhere. In the room used as a ladies
wc before 1974 there was a stone tablet inscribed 'The temple
of ease, 1756'. Early C19 engravings record that this part of
the building was brought under a lean-to catslide roof, and
the position of the main water closet was shown to be in this
vicinity on the 1867 sale plans. The tablet was reset in the
entrance to the conservatory restaurant in 1994.

On the first floor several rooms in the west wing retain heavy
moulded C18 cornices. 2 rooms in the east wing (now Greyfriars
Suite) contain C17 panelling, part reset due to subsequent
creation of the corridor to the south. The Ware Town Council
Chamber, the principal room in the centre, facing south, has
an early/mid C19 cornice with a modelled acanthus frieze and a
guilloche ceiling border. On the first floor of the west wing
the 2 eastern bays remained open as a 'guestern hall' or
dorter until 1849, shortly after when it was subdivided by
Godwin, to form bedrooms, with servants' attic rooms above. It
had exposed tie-beams, and late C14/early C15 octagonal crown
posts, with moulded bases and caps, with fore and aft bracing
to a central collar purlin lateral collar bracing, and an
exposed timber waggon roof, with scissor trussed rafters
above. The mid C19 alterations removed one crown post, and
part (in the western attic) of another, but the first (east)
post remained exposed in the east attic, with part of its
tie-beam. The next post westwards also remained, but is plain
in section suggesting the existence of a partition, possibly
forming a solar. The waggon roof was plastered over, but the
scissor-trussed rafters, and collars, remained with some
evidence of smoke-blackening. The crown post in the west end
with its downward curved bracing appeared to survive, as
indicated prior 1993-4 by pattern staining of the stucco of
the gable end. In the 1993-4 restoration, the two-room pattern
of the first floor of the west (guestern) wing was reinstated.
The west room (Clare Room) had been ceiled C17 at tie-beam
level, and the attic above, where the crown post structure had
already been removed, was sealed off. The Hadsley Room was
completely reinstated as a 2 bay open upper hall, with a
free-standing crown post on the central tie beam, and the
crown post structure of each end was restored. The central
crown post is octagonal, with moulded base and cap, with 4 way
curved bracing. the ceiling above is of a polygonal waggon
profile following the scissor rafters of the roof structure.
The roof over the central wing retains the scissor-trusses
over the north end, but at the south has been replaced by C17
carpentry. In the east wing, creation of the attics (now
Bowsher Suite) entailed removal of the crown post structures,
but the collar purlin remains exposed at the west end, with a
filled mortice for the end bracing, and a portion of the
original east gable end of the roof, with close studding, and
downward curved bracing. The scissor-trussed rafters survive
above the plastered attic ceilings.

HISTORICAL NOTE: Ware Priory is an C18 misnomer for the
Franciscan house, given to Friars Minor of Ware by Thomas,
Lord Wake of Liddell in 1338. The situation of Ware on the
historic Ermine Street brought travellers and mendicant friars
seeking lodgings. The complex probably included a Friary
church, located to the north of the cloister, and excavations
for drain trenches in 1954 and 1977 revealed the remains of a
large stone building, confirmed during further excavations in
1993-94. The Duke of York, father of Edward IV and Richard III
lodged in the Friary after the Battle of St Albans in 1455. In
1544 the Friary was sold to Robert Byrche, and converted to a
private house. During the Commonwealth, the building was
leased to Sir Richard Fanshawe, Secretary of War to the Prince
of Wales, later Charles II. In 1685, the house was sold to
Robert Hadsley of Great Munden, in whose family it remained
until 1868. Probably between 1740 and 1765, during the tenure
of his son, also Robert Hadlsey, the C18 alterations,
including the staircase, panelling, and installation of sash
windows were carried out. In 1847, ownership passed to Martin
Hadsley Gosselin, who consulted the architect George Godwin,
editor of The Builder, who prepared plans for alterations,
involving the reinstatement of the Cloisters as a long
gallery, and the conversion of the west wing to a service
wing. These plans were only partly implemented, and the
alterations are described above. In 1892 Robert Walters added
the Billiards Room, and remodelled the south-east wing. In
1913, after his death, the building was acquired by Mrs
Elizabeth Anne Croft, of Fanhams Hall outside Ware. Mrs Croft
was the only child of Ware's richest maltster, Henry Page.
During the First World War The Priory was used as a
convalescent hospital. In 1920, Mrs Croft leased the building
and grounds to Ware Urban District Council for 999 years at 3
shillings (15p) per annum. The Council used the building as
its offices until 1974, when it passed to the East
Hertfordshire District Council, the successor authority, to be
returned to the Ware Town Council in 1979, to be administered
by the Ware Priory Trustees, who commenced restoration in
1993-94.

The setting of The Priory includes a reach of the River Lea,
and grounds laid out in the picturesque Loudon style in the
early C19. Prior to the 1950s, when Ware UDC opened out the
frontage to High Street, the main entrance was from Priory
Street, where a boundary wall, with a wide Tudor arch housed
substantial studded timber carriage and pedestrian gates,
removed for storage, and which subsequently disappeared.
Property owned as ancillary to The Priory included The Lodge,
No.89 High Street (qv) and a Gardener's cottage, now No.37
Priory Street, with a barn behind (qv).
(Heath C: The Book of Ware. A Portrait of the Town: Chesham:
1977-: 41-4; 46-51; Hunt EM: The History of Ware: Hertford:
1986-: 84-94; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Cherry B:
Hertfordshire: Harmondsworth: 1977-: 22; 378; RCHME:
Hertfordshire: London: 1910-: 228-9; Smith JT: English Houses
1200-1800; The Hertfordshire Evidence: London: 1992-: 177-8;
The Victorian County History of the County of Hertford:
London: 1912-: 392; The Builder : VII: London: 1849-: 342;
Godwin G: Plans of Ware Priory: 1849-: 9; 11; Hewlings R: The
Priory, Ware Herts: 1982-).

Listing NGR: TL3555114312

External Links

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.