Monastic Wales.








Remnants of Usk Priory


Following the dissolution of the priory the nave and north aisle of the church were retained to serve as the parish church; nothing survives of the apsidal presbytery and transept chapels. Most of the fabric dates from the fourteenth century although the rood screen at the east end and the two rib-vaulted porches, one at the west end and the other at the northern entrance, are fifteenth century. The chancel of the present church was the original crossing, beneath the medieval tower. It was probably paved with stone slabs and occasional decorative tiles; four of these have been recovered. One depicts a white rosette, another a fleur-de-lys, and the other two the arms of the Mortimer family (a shield within a shield) and the de Clare family respectively.
Nothing remains of the conventual buildings other than the gatehouse. The gateway has a side door and round-headed arches; the upper two levels have pointed gables and mullioned windows which seemingly date from the early sixteenth century.
Sixteenth-century stone mullion windows survive in the central range of Priory house at Usk which was reconstructed in the nineteenth century when wings were added to the south and east. This may originally have been part of the nuns’ south claustral range.[1]

[1]Coflein database; Monastic Matrix website.


Monastic sites related to this article

Usk, Monmouthshire(Priory)
 
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