Ware Priory is a grade I listed building which began as a 14th Century Benedictine friary. The priory experienced the dissolution by Henry VIII and was acquired by Thomas Byrche around the 1550s and turned into a private house. During the first world war Ware Priory was used as a hospital for injured troops and in 1920 Mrs Anne Croft donated the building then worth £10,000 to the town of Ware. Ware Town Council has undertaken a major restoration project on the Priory and it was reopened by HRH the Duke of Gloucester in 1994.