Britton, John: The architectural antiquities of Great Britain: represented and illustrated in a series of views, elevations, plans, sections, and details, of ancient English edifices ; with historical and descriptive accounts of each (Band 3) (1835)

ARCHITECTURAL
ANTIQUITIES OF GREAT BRITAIN,

&c. &c.

Castle^cre ^rtorp,

NORFOLK;

INCLUDING A CONCISE DESCRIPTION OF THE ARRANGEMENT AND VARIOUS APARTMENTS
THAT FORMERLY CONSTITUTED THE MONASTERY.

BY THE REV. ROBERT FORBY.

_T HE present remains of monastic buildings in England are generally too incon-
siderable to afford the possibility of forming any notion of their extent in a perfect
state. Stripped of their lead coverings, with every other article of value, at the
Dissolution, they were left exposed to the injuries of wind and weather ; some parts,
however, were converted into farm-houses, and, in a few instances, into mansions for
the nobility or gentry, to whom the sites and demesnes were granted by Henry the
Eighth. In the latter cases, many licentious changes have been made at different
times, according to the fancies of the owners, whereby a total confusion or de-
struction of architectural character has been effected. Should the remains of any
monastery, even one of the smallest, be sufficiently ample to afford a general outline
of the whole, and display enough for the probable arrangement of all its principal
parts, a short description of that cannot, I presume, be unacceptable to the public :
and such are the ruins of Castle-Acre Priory. They are, indeed, unusually ample
and various. In every part where buildings have stood, walls or apparent foun-
dations still remain ; and where the former are entirely fallen, the proportions and
dimensions may be ascertained, by prominences of the soil. Many of the ruins