The Old Vicarage

THE OLD VICARAGE

Vicarage, now house. Built in 1863 for Reverend W R Allcroft by James Fowler of Louth, the diocesan architect. The building is constructed of red-brown brick in English bond with bands and dressings of yellow brick, vitrified blue brick and ashlar, beneath a Welsh slate roof.

The building is approximately square on plan, comprising a double-depth main range with a 2-room west front containing an entrance hall to the left of centre, and a 2-room south garden front. It is 2 storeys tall.

The west front consists of 3 irregular bays with a gabled section breaking forward to the left of centre. A chamfered plinth runs across the base with flush bands of yellow and blue brick headers. The projecting gabled section on the left contains an enclosed entrance porch with a buttress to its left. Stone steps lead to a pointed chamfered ashlar outer arch, with a narrow square-headed ashlar side window to the left return. The inner door is a pointed half-glazed panelled door within a chamfered keyed brick arch. To the right stands a tall pointed 2-light ashlar stair window with a chamfered and moulded mullion and transom to its lower section. The upper section features a shafted mullion with a foliate capital, with triangular-headed lights beneath a foiled circular light, all within a reveal beneath a keyed polychrome brick arch with a flush brick impost band. Above the entrance, a first-floor single-light segmental-pointed window sits beneath a shouldered-arch light with a pierced cinquefoil, in a reveal beneath a keyed brick arch. The gable displays an ashlar relief tablet with a crown above a shield inscribed "W R A" beneath "1863".

The right bay contains a 3-light mullion-and-transom ground-floor window within a quoined surround beneath a keyed segmental-pointed brick relieving arch with herringbone brick infill. The first-floor window is a 2-light ashlar cross window with a similar surround and keyed relieving arch, positioned within a gabled half-dormer. Both windows feature dummy chamfered mullions and transoms in front of unequal sashes with glazing bars.

The eaves comprise a 3-course cogged and stepped brick raking cornice to the gables, with stepped eaves to the remainder. Crested ridge tiles and an ornate wrought-iron finial crown the gabled entrance bay. An octagonal single-flue stack stands to the left of the entrance bay, with corniced ridge stacks to the rear featuring tumbled-in brick at the offsets.

The right return forms a 2-bay south garden front. A projecting gabled single-bay section to the left features a ground-floor canted bay with 2- and 3-light mullion-and-transom windows beneath a hipped roof, and a first-floor cross window beneath a keyed segmental-pointed relieving arch. The section to the left has similar ground-floor and first-floor windows beneath keyed relieving arches, the upper window within a gabled half-dormer.

The east front, facing the River Trent, has a gabled section to the left with a ground-floor canted bay and first-floor cross window. An inserted French window and original single-light and 2-light first-floor ashlar windows occupy the right portion. All original windows feature unequal sashes set behind dummy mullions and transoms.

Interior details include an open-well closed-string staircase with a Gothick style balustrade and chamfered newel posts with trefoiled finials. Segmental-pointed openings lead to the upper stairhall. Gothic style stone chimney-pieces grace the two south rooms, featuring fillet-moulded segmental-pointed arches and quatrefoiled panels in the spandrels. Moulded cornices and panelled doors in architraves complete the original scheme.

The building is similar in style to Fowler's 1862 vicarage at Amcotts. The building was wrongly marked as Greenacre on the Ordnance Survey map.