Listed Building: BREADSALL PRIORY (1328834)

PARISH OF BREADSALL MOOR ROAD SK 34 SE 1/6 (West side) 2.9.52 Breadsall Priory GV II Country house, now hotel, golf and country club. Built on the site of a C13 Augustinian priory of which a fragment survives. Elizabethan E-plan house facing east, greatly enlarged and remodelled c1861 by Robert Scrivener and with a west wing of 1906, both in Elizabethan style. Gritstone ashlar. Plain tile roofs with stone coped gables with plain kneelers. Various ashlar ridge and gable stacks. Two and three storeys. South elevation of six irregular bays. From left to right: single light recessed and chamfered mullion window to each floor. Projecting gabled bay with a projecting full height square bay window. This has two cross windows to the ground floor, a pair of 3-light windows above with two transoms, and a pair of 3-light windows above again with a transom. Moulded stringcourses. In the gable above, a 2-light window. To the right is a two bay open arcade with segmental arches and within are two round-arched windows with glazing bars. Canted oriel above of 1-3-2 lights with two transoms. Plain parapet. 4-light mullioned and transomed window above again. Moulded stringcourses. To the right a single light window to the first and second floor. Here the 1899 wing joins the earlier house. Gabled bay has a two-storey C19 canted bay with 2-4-2 light mullioned windows, the upper ones trefoiled with quatrefoils above. Castellated parapet. 4-light mullioned and transomed window above with trefoiled lights. Corbelled-out stair turret to right of this. C16 3-light mullioned and transomed window above again. Projecting square tower to right has an ogee doorway with crockets and fleurons, and colonnettes with stiff-leaf capitals. 3-light mullioned and transomed window above with trefoiled lights. Intermediate 2-light window above and a 3-light, C16, mullioned and transomed window above again. Castellated parapet andcorbelled out polygonal angle turrets. East elevation of six irregular bays. The tower to the left has three 3-light mullioned and transomed windows. The upper two are C16. Then three gabled bays, the third cut by a projecting wing. The fenestration is of c1861, consisting of 2, 3 and 4-light mullioned and transomed windows with hoodmoulds, and some with trefoiled heads. Projecting C15 style porch with polygonal angle turrets and parapet with lozenge frieze. Projecting wing to right has a castellated canted bay window of 1-4-1 lights, two cross windows above, and a castellated parapet with corbelled-out polygonal turrets. Irregular north elevation has C16 3-light mullioned and transomed windows in the gables and remains of several other C16 windows below, brocken into by later windows. Castellated wall attached to south west, with two gothic doorways, the latter flanked by re-set carved pilasters. The interior has the remains of one C13 doorway with roll moulding. The entrance hall is of c1861 with a two bay Perp style arcade and two other similar archways. Staircase has twisted balusters. The drawing room has a C19 gothic chimneypiece and Adam style doorcases. The library and the billiard room are of 1906 with lavish C17 style carved oak woodwork and plaster ceiling. The billiard room has a fireplace bay with a gallery above. Off the entrance hall a large gothic door with elaborate wrought iron work, made by Mr Haslam for the 1851 exhibition. Dining room has Elizabeth style carving and plaster work. History: the Augustinian priory was founded in the C13 and suppressed in 1536. It was granted to Henry, Duke of Suffolk, in 1552 and sold in the same year to Thomas Babington. In 1799 it became the property of Erasmus Darwin who died here in 1802. Listing NGR: SK3814541418