- £60,000 - most probably derived from a stake in the family business, now run by his elder brother Frank. Work began in 1903, with the construction of various outbuildings, including thatched semi-detached gardeners' cottages and a complex of gardens. Initially experiments with construction techniques using materials derived from the site were carried out, for example in the construction of the walls of vegetable garden. The main house was not begun until 1904, when the sunken flower garden, and deep, was excavated to provide aggregates for the construction of the house itself. Pebbles were used for facing the walls, gravel for concrete and sand for general building purposes. Surface earth was used for the terraces. The excess ballast produced was sold to local authorities. Local carstone was employed, quarried near Sandringham, as were tiles made of local Norfolk clay, though some materials had to be got from Cambridgeshire when supplies ran out. Oak was also obtained locally. The house is constructed of mass concrete made of local lime and the materials derived from the site. The flint facing is tied to the external walls with carstone and fixed to the core with bricks. The lace coursings of tile-bricks binds and reinforces the structure. Galletting with flints was widely used. The floors are of concrete reinforced with iron chains. The roof is covered in local pantiles. The patterning and modelling of the wall surfaces and the colours and texturing of the building are pronounced. The exterior surfaces are highly decorated. The patterning makes reference to the local tradition of diaper and zigzag patterns in the brickwork of cottages and farm buildings. Tiles were extensively employed, forming the surrounds of the first floor windows, as lintels in herringbone patterns and as decorative bands and patterns. Tiles and narrow courses of brick were used in twisted neo-Tudor chimney stacks. Prior did not employ a general contractor in the building. Electrical services were executed under contract, but the main construction work was supervised and labour and materials purchased by Prior's site clerk, Randall Wells (1877–1942) and Mr Blower, a local bricklayer. Prior believed that contract systems would result in "only the most mechanical expressions of design" being brought to fruition. Randall Wells had been discovered by William Lethaby in 1902 and had acted as his resident clerk of works at Brockhampton Church, Herefordshire. Randall Wells had received a practical training in joinery, founding as