Description

Potters Green
TL 32 SW LITTLE MUNDEN ROWNEY LANE
(south side)

4/21 Rowney Priory and
Rowney House
(formerly listed as
4.12.51 Rowney Priory under Civil Parish
of Great Munden)

- II

Country house, now 2 houses. Mid C19, said to incorporate fabric
of a Benedictine nunnery founded in 1164 by Conan, Duke of
Brittany and Earl of Richmond, reduced to a Chantry after 1457
and confiscated by the Crown 1548. Knapped flint with white
brick quoins and dressings. Flint and stone arcaded screen and
open porch at front. Steep old red tile roofs. 2 storeys and
attics, H-shaped house facing E. Projecting gabled wings with
oversailing boarded verges and recessed sash windows in moulded
frames and chamfered square headed openings with moulded labels.
Tall red brick central chimneys with diagonally set-square
shafts. Centre screened by castellated 3-bay, 4-centred arched
screen each side of square open porch with low pitched stone
gable. A narrow and a wider gabled and corbelled dormer oriel
flank the porch with a circular armorial window between. 4-light
moulded mullioned and transomed leaded windows behind the screen
flanking a half-glazed Gothick oak panelled door in a Tudor
arched opening with deep reveals. Moulded cross-windows with
leaded lights to left hand wing. 3 windows wide symmetrical
garden front on E has 2-light cross window flanked by 3-light
pilastered sash windows with round headed lights. Central French
doors up 2 steps flanked by stone and flint embattled canted bays
with moulded cross windows. Red tiled timber arcaded small
cloister to right hand behind brick and flint screen wall to
forecourt. Projecting 2-storeys range at rear with 10-light
ovolo stone mullioned window over Tudor arched loggia and 6-light
similar window. NW service wing projects to rear, of flint and
brick with sash windows. N wing now named Rowney House. The
house has a good contemporary interior with striking staircase in
Jacobean style. Oak panelled room with chimney piece, Delft
tiles, and small Ionic caryatids in Flemish style in Rowney
House. (RCHM (1911) 104, 6: VCH (1912) 127-8: Pevsner (1977)
153).

Listing NGR: TL3473520245

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26396242

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

• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)