Norfolk Heritage Explorer

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Full description

1972. Listed Grade II*.
Domestic building associated with Benedictine Priory which lay immediately west. Divided into two houses probably at the Reformation. Present buildings c1470, refaced in the 18th century, but with 14th century elements to rear (west wall). Interiors largely 20th century. Carstone and limestone. Brick facade and returns, front rendered and colourwashed. Two storeys.
No. 17 with central panelled door in simple doorcase. One late 20th century horned sash window left and right replacing shopfronts. Small 20th century fixed window to extreme right. Three sashes with glazing bars to first floor.
No. 18 entered through 20th century half-glazed door to right. Two plate-glass sashes to its left, and 2 similar to first floor, each with one glazing bar. Gabled roof continues over both houses. Internal gable-end stacks. Rear elevation with various minor ground-floor alterations and extensions. Traces of former doorways and windows discernible. First floor with three stone mullioned windows, the lights four-centred, under square hollow-chamfered hoods on label stops. From north they are of three, two and one-lights respectively, the latter serving No. 18. One 20th century dormer to No. 17, two to No. 18.
Interior of No. 17: Ground-floor north room with wave-moulded bridging beam and plain joists. South room with a chamfered bridging beam. Crown post roof of high quality: two bays, tension braces from posts to tie beams, arched braces from posts to crown purlins, common rafters and collars. Roof said to continue uninterrupted into No. 18, as is likely.
Information from (S1).
A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 26 February 2020.

1983. Field survey.
The easternmost end of No. 12 Priory Lane comes within the back yard of No. 18 Church Street. Drawings of this show half an archway cut by the yard wall. The remainder of this archway is now visible following demolition of outbuildings.
No. 18 was until recently a fishmongers and the ground floor was gutted and lined with glazed bricks for this purpose. The upper floor is of late medieval type brick interspersed with stone blocks. Towards the southern end is a pointed window with hoodmould with label stops, one light wide, now partly blocked.
See more detailed observations in file.
E. Rose (NAU), 16 December 1983.

1984. Building survey of No. 18.
The building is part of a medieval range running north-south. The south gable and the corner property to the south have been entirely rebuilt. All the openings in the east wall of the building have also been modernised. The interior has been gutted except for the floor joists. The chimney stack in the north wall may be of medieval origin: the jambs of the ground floor fireplace appear to survive. In the west wall are preserved two medieval windows and a doorway, all apparently in situ, although the southernmost part of the wall has been completely rebuilt. The jambs of the doorway survive to a height of about 1m. Above the north jamb at first floor level is a single-light window with a four-centred head under a label. The spandrels are sunk. To the north of the doorway at ground floor level is a larger window, the jambs and splay of which survive, as does the rear-arch. A fragment of relieving arch over the window survives of the external face of the wall over the north jamb.
The other part of the building to retain substantial medieval features is the roof. Ten roughly chamfered tie beams survive, each measuring 200mm across, 150mm deep and the interval between them is 340mm. The roof has pairs of rafters with collars which run over a central collar purlin. All the side purlins are later insertions. At its northern end the collar purlin is supported on a crown post which is within a closed truss. The truss consists of a collar with five substantial studs below and three above. The central stud of the lower tier is the crown post and has two down braces within the truss.
The building appears to have formed part of a continuous range of properties running east from the 'Priory' building and then around the corner and north along Church Street. If the single-light window in the west wall is not an insertion then the date for the building may be around 1450, though the absence of side purlins in the original roof suggests an earlier date.
See (S2) for further details.
A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 26 February 2020.

1984. Examination of interior of No. 17.
The occupant reported that the medieval ranges did indeed once join up around the corner from Priory Lane to Church Street, and continue northward from No. 17 but that both these sections had collapsed in the 19th century. He noted that the now-demolished fish-curing houses to the rear of No. 18 had been built by his father in 1916 and that No. 18 had been a fishmongers before the gutting of the ground floor and that a midwall rail had been replaced by an RSJ during this process. He also recalled that around 1916 there was a 'large church font' in the gardens behind Priory Lane. The deeds of No. 18 were stated to have said that the property was sold in 1780 by Norwich Cathedral to Bagges of Lynn.
The walls are of great thickness, about 0.6m (2 feet). The house formerly had a floor of stone slabs (now used to pave the back yard) but the original floor surface was found 0.6m (2 feet) below these and was 'preserved' at this level below the present floor, according to the occupant. A later staircase that blocked the rear windows has been removed. The roof is very fine, with a longitudinal timber as if for a crownpost roof supported at each end on an arched brace springing from the partition gable walls.
Little can be judged now of the original internal layout but it would seem that this, along with 12 to 20 Priory Lane (NHER 64021) is all part of the original Priory buildings. The work appears similar to that in Priory Lane (NHER 64020).
E. Rose (NAU), 19 April 1984.

October 1984. The face of the exterior west wall of No. 18 was stripped of render and the interior of the building stripped and floorboards removed.
The exterior face of the west wall is composed of carstone rubble with limestone blocks and occasional bricks and tile courses, similar to the composition seen at No. 17 and 12 to 20 Priory Lane (NHER 64021). The stripped interior revealed that the north partition wall to No. 17 is of later date. The south gable wall is of 19th century brick. The roof structure comprises another truss like those recorded at No. 17 and 12 to 20 Priory Lane (NHER 64021).
It would seem certain that this building does form part of the monastic buildings.
See detailed notes in file.
E. Rose (NAU), 18 October 1984.

2005.
Mrs E.M. James states that her research has shown that the monastic cloister must have been south of the chancel, not the nave, and that Priory Lane is a later inserted street. She suggests that it is therefore unlikely that these buildings could have been claustral.
E. Rose (NLA), 21 January 2005.

Monument Types

• BUILDING (Medieval to 21st Century - 1300 AD? to 2050 AD)
• HOUSE (Post Medieval to 21st Century - 1540 AD to 2050 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status

• Listed Building

Sources and further reading

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