Old Vicarage And Parish Room To Church Of St Thomas Of Canterbury

The Old Vicarage and Parish Room, now part of Chester College’s English Department, was built in 1880 by the architect John Douglas. It is constructed of red-brown brick with plaster panels, and has roofs covered with graded Westmorland green slate. The building has an asymmetric design, with a porch and stair on the left, corridors in a recessed central section, an attic stair, ancillary rooms and a single-storey wing for the former parish room, all facing northeast. The principal rooms are situated to take advantage of views of the southwest garden.

The building is two storeys and an attic in height. The sweeping stair roof descends towards the front left. The symmetrical, two-storey porch has stone steps leading to a brick archway with a 9-panel door set within a leaded, half-glazed timber screen. Casement windows have moulded brick mullions, stone transoms to the ground floor, and ogee and basket-arched heads to the upper lights, all with leaded glass, some of which has been removed. Two 3-light casements are found in the corridor. A square turret contains a secondary staircase. A 5-light casement is positioned in the front gable to the right. The parish room has a porch in the corner adjoining the main house, with an arched doorway, a triple lancet window, and a pair of lancets. A terracotta jetty marks the porch and central bay. The apsidal chapel above the porch features brick strings and hoodmoulds to a lancet in each face. A course of basket-arched lights runs below the eaves of the turret's pyramidal roof, which is topped with a weather-vane. The right gable has a 3-light casement. Rectangular and lozenge-shaped plaster panels are present beneath the corridor windows and in the gables. A lateral chimney is situated at the inner corner of the porch-bay. A large chimney rises before the ridge of the central roof. The southeast end has a projecting shaped chimney, a French window with two leaded lights above, and a cross-window to the stair. Plaster lozenge panels are found in the gable. The garden front features a long, simple rear wing, dividing the garden from the Parish Room. A two-storey, 6-light canted bay window is positioned to the right. Three 3-light casements are aligned on the ground floor of the central portion. A horizontal band of rhythmically grouped mullioned casements illuminates the bedrooms. The rear gable-end to the left bay contains a basket-arched light on the first floor and a 2-light casement beneath the plastered apex of the gable.

The interior features details typical of John Douglas’s work, including 5, 6, and 9-panel pine doors with reeded stiles, alongside decorative door furniture. Fireplace surrounds incorporate good tiles and timber detailing with inlaid work. A timber screen with leaded glazing is present, as is a good open-well staircase with a timber screen to the landing. Trusses in the Parish Room roof showcase well-expressed simple carpentry.