The Old Rectory

The Old Rectory is a late 16th-century rectory, now a private house, located in Gawsworth, Cheshire. It is a timber-framed building with rendered and painted infill and a plain tile roof. The building is a hall house.

The main part of the house has two storeys with an attic. A two-story gabled porch was added in the early 19th century, centrally positioned with a pointed arch on the ground floor, featuring roll moulding within a rectangular wooden surround and quatrefoils in the spandrels. The first floor of the porch has a two-light casement window set within close studding. The gable of the porch has decorated bargeboards. To the left of the porch is a hall range with close-studded walls and four arched braces. A 20th-century oriel window is situated on the ground floor to the right, with paired 19th-century two-light casement windows to the left. A two-light first-floor window is also present to the left. To the extreme left is a single-story gabled projecting wing with a slightly projecting 19th-century window bay. To the right of the porch, a late 19th-century chimney breast is in the re-entrant angle, with a canted 19th-century ground-floor bay window adjoining it. Above this is a three-light window, and a two-light gabled dormer is located in the attic, featuring decorated bargeboards. To the right of this are three and two-light ground-floor windows, with a single-light window on the first floor, and another gabled dormer in the attic. A projecting single-story gabled wing with close studding and arched bracing, and 20th-century fenestration is located to the right of this.

The rear of the building features large 19th-century brick additions centrally and to the right. To the left is a 19th-century outshut at ground floor level with close-studded walling to the first floor, exhibiting arched braces.

Inside, the hall has two bays, featuring a cambered tie beam truss with a moulded boss at the centre, supported on heavy moulded arched braces with queen posts above. A 20th-century replacement canted oriel is located at the west end of the south wall. A screened wall at the eastern end contains three four-centred doors with moulded frames. There is a timbered first-floor passage above, which may have originally been an open gallery. A 20th-century fireplace on the north wall incorporates a 16th-century panel bearing an inscription relating to the Fitton family. To the left of this fireplace is a 15th-century two-light window with a wooden frame, a moulded mullion, and ogee heads to the lights. A study contains moulded ceiling beams with bosses, while the “Mary Fitton room” has small framing to the walls and moulded beams. The passage outside the Mary Fitton room has a moulded plaster ceiling. A hall bedroom truss displays a cambered tie beam with angled braces. A 1724 fireplace has a bolection-moulded surround and a painted panel to the overmantel recording the building’s restoration carried out by the Rector, William Hall. A later restoration occurred in 1873, under the direction of Norman Shaw. The building is one of the best-preserved medium-sized houses of its period in Cheshire, and is particularly significant for the survival of the open hall.