History

The building which is now a barn of Court Farm has medieval perhaps C12 monastic origins and was built as the great gatehouse to Llanthony Priory. This kind of gateway, however, is more characteristic of the later medieval period. Following the Dissolution it passed into secular use and appears to have fallen into ruin. It was remodelled as a barn at two dates with straight joints marking the division. The building had clearly been unroofed, but it was now both reroofed and extended by a further bay. One section of roof appears to be C17 or early C18, while the extension has a C19 roof.
The precinct wall encompassed seven acres and would presumably have been begun fairly soon after the building of the main Priory buildings. What survives now has been much rebuilt and includes the footings of the building, perhaps the Guest House, which once stood at the south-west corner of the precinct.
Llanthony was a priory of Augustinian Canons that was founded c1108-1118 but after 1136 there was a gradual move to the new settlement of Llanthony Secunda at Gloucester. The priory church is late C12. The English cell flourished so much that in 1481 the original Llanthony was reduced to that of a priory cell of Llanthony Secunda, reversing the previous relationship between the two priories. It is therefore surprising that the buildings at the Priory continued to develop but the evidence of this building, as with the Prior's Lodging, suggests that the priory's fortunes were not all lost, although its value at Dissolution in 1536 was only £100. The estate was purchased by Walter Savage Landor in 1809 for £20,000, and it may be that he did some work on this building.

Exterior

Red sandstone random rubble with a stone tiled roof. A rectangular block, but clearly in two builds, the main medieval part by the road which has corner buttresses, and a 50% extension at the rear when it was converted into a barn. The walling suggests that the tops of the walls, the main gable and all the roof were put on at that time. The triple window in the gable is probably incorporated from somewhere else in the Priory since two cusped headed windows from the C14, flank an apparently Early English one from maybe 100 years earlier. The gable elevation has a large pointed chamfered archway blocked by rubble stonework with two tiers of ventilation slits, and a triangular one above. The rebuilt gable with the triple window is above this. The east wall has an opening into a hay loft in the centre with a blocked opening to the left. A buttress with off-set marks the end of the medieval section, and there is a barn door under a timber lintel in the extension. This is opposed on the west wall. The medieval section has a small arched doorway into a demolished range which may have been a Guest house or an Infirmary. The north gable is blind.
Attached on the west side are red sandstone rubble walling from foundations up to about 2.5m in height. This was the wall of the range to the west of the Priory Gatehouse and then the beginnings of the Precinct wall which once surrounded seven acres. It includes the base of a tower and the doorway into it at the south-west corner. The Precinct wall then turns to the north and runs for about 50m.

Interior

The interior has a much earlier medieval look than the exterior and does perhaps suggest a C12 date with half columns and the springing of the vault surviving. It can been seen where the tops of the walls have been repaired and a new roof put on. The roof over the medieval part has principal rafter trusses with collars and ties and three tiers of purlins. This is repeated over the extension, but constructed with sawn timbers.

Reasons for Listing

Grade I as an important survival of the buildings of Llanthony Priory and for its group value with them, Court Farm, Abbey Hotel and St David's Church.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Court Farm Barn at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17741456

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

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living