The Old Rectory

THE OLD RECTORY

Rectory, now house and museum. Built in 1709 with later minor alterations and renovations undertaken in 1956–7. Constructed of red-brown brick with the south front laid in Flemish bond and the west front in English garden wall bond. Pantile roof. The building follows a double-depth plan with a 3-room south front incorporating a central entrance hall and a 2-room west garden front. It is 2 storeys with an attic.

The south front comprises 7 bays, not quite regular, with the central bay breaking forward. An ovolo-moulded plinth runs across the base with chamfered brick quoins at the angles. The entrance features 20th-century steps leading to a wide 6-fielded-panel door and 4-pane overlight set in an architrave with slim 19th-century carved consoles carrying a cornice and hood. A 20th-century wooden plaque mounted above bears a painted motto and shield with arms in relief beneath a broken pediment resting on the consoles. 12-pane sash windows are set in flush wooden architraves with restored ashlar sills and rubbed-brick flat arches; three ground-floor bays and five first-floor windows were re-opened during 1950s restorations. A 2-course brick first-floor band steps out above the ground-floor windows. Deep moulded and modillioned wooden eaves cornice incorporating the gutter extends across the front. The roof is double-span, hipped to the left, with a raised concrete-coped gable to the right and a corniced ridge stack positioned to the right of centre.

The left return forms the west front of 4 bays, employing similar architectural details and window treatments (2 ground-floor windows with restored arches). The roof is hipped with a 20th-century gabled roof dormer containing a 16-pane casement and a corniced ridge stack at the centre. The right return contains three 12-pane sashes to both ground and first floors, with three unequal 9-pane sashes to the attic set beneath segmental stretcher arches. Twin gables with a parapet rise between them, with a corniced stack to the right. The rear elevation shows irregular fenestration comprising hung and sliding sashes, 20th-century casements and a French window, with 4 gabled dormers each fitted with 16-pane casements.

The interior preserves notable original features. The entrance hall contains a restored chamfered basket-arched fireplace with tongue stops; the surrounding walls are reputed to be the sole surviving section of the previous rectory. A 19th-century moulded plaster cornice adorns the upper wall. The stairhall features a fine original open-well closed-string staircase with a wide corniced handrail, moulded string, turned balusters and square newel posts, one of which bears a pendant drop. A 19th-century moulded cornice with acanthus leaf centre-piece and foliate mouldings to the angles crowns the upper hall. The ground floor contains a chamfered spine beam with tongue stops to the rear right, a boxed-in spine beam to the front right, and moulded cornices to the front and rear left rooms. The rear left room also features beaded-panel cupboards with H-hinges. On the first floor, a reused section of timber framing serves as the spine beam to the front right; chamfered spine beams run through other rooms, some exhibiting tongue stops. Plaster floors extend across the attic. The roof structure comprises collared rafters with pegged butt purlins.

Built in 1709 to replace a previous rectory destroyed by fire earlier that year, this house was the boyhood home of John and Charles Wesley. The attic contains "Old Jeffreys Chamber", the scene of the famous hauntings recorded in John Wesley's Journal. Additions made in 1883 by Francis Goddard of Lincoln were removed during the 20th century. The building ceased being a rectory in 1954 when it was purchased by the World Methodist Council, who undertook extensive restorations. The house is of considerable historic interest.