Description

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL86NE MILDENHALL ROAD 639-1/13/474 (East side) 07/08/52 The Priory Hotel (Formerly Listed as: MILDENHALL ROAD (East side) Babwell Friary)

II*

House, now a hotel, on the site of the former Babwell Friary, a house of Franciscan friars transferred here after 1262. C16, C17 and C18, possibly with a fragmentary older core. Part timber-framed and rendered, part flint with brick dressings. Plaintiled roofs. Complex plan, with the principal range aligned east-west and with 2 wings extending northwards from it. EXTERIOR: part 2 storeys, part 2 storeys and attics. The principal range is timber-framed and rendered and has a red brick gable end facing the Mildenhall Road which incorporates a C16 chimney-stack with 4 detached hexagonal shafts on moulded bases. In the early C17 the stack was widened and given shaped gables; quoins to the lower stages are partly of stone. Just below the chimney shafts a recessed plaster panel with the remains of a sundial. The principal front is on the south side. 5 window range: all 12-pane sashes in flush cased frames. The central 6-panel double entrance door is partly glazed and set in a heavy Tuscan porch. An internal chimney-stack has 5 attached hexagonal sawtooth shafts on a low rectangular base. The pitch of the roof has been made shallower to accommodate a larger attic storey. On the east, a 2-storey flat-roofed canted bay was added to the gable end in the C18: 3 windows, all 12-pane sashes in flush cased frames; a plain parapet with a moulded stucco cornice. In the gable above the flat roof a 2-light casement window and moulded bargeboards with a small lion's head at the apex. The wing extending northwards from the east end of the main range is in 2 sections: part with sash windows in Georgian style, part on a lower level with a split level mansard roof. The long wing extending northwards from the west end of the main range and fronting the Mildenhall Road is in flint with white brick dressings: externally of the early C19, it is thought to contain fragments of the Friary buildings, although none are visible. 6 window range: 12-pane sashes in shallow

reveals. 2 half glazed doors and 4 sash windows to the ground storey. An internal chimney-stack has 3 hexagonal shafts on moulded bases similar to those on the gable end stack; originally it had 4 shafts. INTERIOR: the east-west range is in 3 bays and was first divided into 3 heated rooms. Only main beams are visible on the ground storey, boxed in the east bay. The 2 west bays have ovolo-moulded trimmers and a main cross-beam which formerly held a partition, now faced with later boarding. The end stack on the west has a very wide fireplace with plain stone jambs and a straight chamfered lintel. The internal stack has 2 back-to-back hearths on each storey, all rendered over to simulate stone. On the ground storey these have simple ovolo-moulded segmental-arched openings; on the upper storey one has a moulded Tudor arch with spandrels. Another upper fireplace has been 'Georgianised' and has patterned blue Delft tiles. Along the north upper wall of this range is a section of close studding with a blocked 3-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window and main posts with long jowls. Within the upper room at the east end the tie-beam of the original end wall is exposed with an unusual form of folded leaf carving and the central motif of a pomegranate. Some sash windows on each storey have panelled internal shutters. An early C19 stair has stick balusters and a wreathed handrail. The Babwell Friary remains are a Scheduled Ancient Monument. (BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 153-154).



Listing NGR: TL8505665991

External Links

• Wikidata Q17540333

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

• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)