The Priory Rainwater heads show the date 1719 when the present property was built. Despite its name, records reveal no such ecclesiastical connection. The Priory was an independent school in the 1870's. By 1868 Revd George Smith, the vicar and Schoolmaster was living here. It was acquired by the Church Governors in 1894, and from 1896 to 1912 housed the Kings Grammar School. Following the 1914-18 war it was home to the Ottery St Mary branch of the Royal British Legion. It was the Ottery St Mary Police Station, Court House and detention cells from 1949 to 1974