Carrow Abbey

The actual date of the house's foundation is not clear. King Stephen, by charter, gave his lands in the fields of Norwich, and a meadow adjoining the land charged to God and the Church of St. Mary and St. John, of Norwich, and the nuns serving there. Stephen directed that such nuns should found their church on such land. They were to hold such lands as freely as the king himself did. Upon this, two of the nuns, who were sisters, Seyna and Lescelina, are said to have begun building the priory in 1146, eight years before Stephen's death, and to have dedicated it to "St. Mary of Carhowe", from which it would seem this was an offshoot of a Norwich nunnery dedicated to St. Mary and St. John (now…

Most of the rooms in the priory are dated to the 16th century and late 19th century during the Coleman renovation. The entrance hall has a great hooded stone fireplace which bears the date 1900. The right wing features intricate moulded plaster ceilings, seen in the dining room and first floor rooms. The interior of the left parlour contains panelling and a fireplace dated to the 16th century on the ground floor A Gothic-style staircase with crockets and lion finials leads up the first floor, which contains bedrooms with moulded ceiling beams.