On arrival at the Priest’s House in Easton on the Hill, we were stumped. The app said it was open, the website said it was open, but the door to the property was firmly locked.
Thankfully, my more observant NT companion spotted in a waterproof cabinet instructions on how to get the key for the building – and moments later I found myself on the doorstep of a neighbouring house, ringing the doorbell and hoping the inhabitant didn’t think I was completely insane.
The friendly chap didn’t seem phased, as this appears to be a normal occurrence at Easton on the Hill, and happily handed over the key to me with instructions to post it through his letterbox on completion.
And so, bizarrely, we found ourselves entrusted with a key to a National Trust property.
The Priest’s House is a property of two halves. The lower floor is unremarkable, with lots of information about the building itself, while the upstairs is a higgledy-piggeldy museum of items collected from the village.
The Priest’s House is one of the National Trust’s smallest properties, and was built somewhere between 1474 and 1499, so probably one of the oldest too.
The house came about when the village rector died, and he left a sum of money for a priest to say prayers for his soul. The priest spent the money on this house, and village priests lived there for 200 years, until about 1700.
At this point it became a schoolhouse, then 100 years later it was used to house livestock (the ceiling was raised at this point to accommodate horses, and a trapdoor was put in to pass fodder through), and in 1963 it was listed for demolition. Thankfully it was rescued, and gifted to the National Trust in 1965.
Up a gorgeous stone staircase is the museum which primarily focuses on the mining of Collyweston slates, which died out in the 1950s.
While mining history isn’t my thing, the collections of everyday items from the village were pleasant, such as ice-skating boots, spice grinders, and an egg carrying box for posting eggs.
Verdict: Bizarre but quaint little place. Average museum, but a quick property to tick off.
Coronavirus: Please note, this visit took place just before the COVID-19 outbreak, I’ve just been a bit busy with work to write it up.
A Year of Trust 