Description

SE 3170 RIPON HIGH SAINT AGNESGATE
5/5
27.5.49 (south side)

Thorpe Prebend House
GV [(formerly listed as
The City Museum (Thorpe
Prebend House)]

II*

Mid-C17, with some internal alterations of circa 1700. Although the plan seems
old-fashioned for this date it is a similar plan to that adopted for the Old Deanery
circa 1660-70. But, since the prebends of the reconstituted College were
non-territorial its name suggests that it is, at the least a rebuilding of one of the
mediaeval prebendaries houses. It consists of a hall range and 2 projecting wings on
river (south) side, which have catslide roofs towards the centre.

Roughcast, apparently over brick with ashlar dressings. Pitched pantile and stone
slate roofs. Coped gable on cut stone kneelers which once had finials on them. Two
storeys and attics. Moulded strings and various moulded window cornices of same
profile, unrelated to many of the present windows.

Hall range of four bays: C18 sashes with glazing bars, and some C19 casements and
Yorkshire casements with glazing bars. West wing has French windows and mid C19
2-storey canted bay: east side of west wing has 2 attic dormers and one semi-dormer.
The street (north) front has various C18 sashes with glazing bars, and one mid C19
door with 6 fielded panels, oblong fanlight and wooden Tuscan doorcase. Massive
projecting chimneybreast with tall diagonally-placed stacks. Two projecting
chimneybreasts at west end (the stack, though separated, are not diagonally placed),
with a later addition built in between.

The east wing has various (internal) remnants of a timber frame. This may, therefore,
be part of the earlier house, probably mediaeval or early C16, of the prebendaries of
Thorpe.

Interior. C17 features include hall fireplace, with a chamfered 4-centred arch; the
wainscotting of the rooms on both floors of the west wing, though as these rooms have
C19 windows, this wainscotting must be re-set; and a chimneypiece with an elaborate
overmantel in the north-west first floor room.

C18 features include the elm staircase, which has a closed string, plain newels with a
cut scrolled console to lowest newel, and double-twisted spiral balusters (features
typical of a circa 1700). Room above hall has fielded panelling, overmantel with
moulded shoulders of surround and chimneypiece with simple egg-and-dart architrave.
Bolection-moulded chimneypiece in first floor south-west room.

Thorpe Prebend is in some ways more typical of a Pennine manor house, than of the Vale
of York; though, unlike its Pennine contemporaries, it is built of brick and stone.

Listing NGR: SE3143670997

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17536580

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

• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)