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

• Wikidata Q17536580

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Recommended Books

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)