The Old Rectory

The Old Rectory

A rectory, now house, built between 1846 and 1848 by S S Teulon for the Rector of Brocklesby, the Reverend Robert Carr Brackenbury, who was chaplain to the Earl of Yarborough. The building was extended with later 19th-century additions to the rear and underwent renovation in 1984-5.

The structure is built of local grey brick laid in Flemish bond with sandstone ashlar dressings and has a Welsh slate roof. It displays the Gothic Revival style. The original building is F-shaped in plan, comprising a main west entrance range with two projecting wings (the right wing incorporates the entrance porch) and a service wing to the left, with later additions extending to the rear right and rear left.

The west front consists of a main range of two storeys with attic accommodation, arranged in four bays, with a single-storey service wing to the left. There is a chamfered plinth. The prominent entrance features a full-height gabled porch with octagonal angle-buttresses with off-sets. Steps lead up to a half-glazed panelled door with a plain overlight, the entrance set within a chamfered brick four-centred arch with a projecting brick surround corbelled out to a gabled hood with shaped kneelers and chamfered four-centred arch. The left return of the porch has a pair of single-light windows flanking a blind central panel beneath a hood-mould. The adjoining wing to the right has a projecting central section with a single-light window (originally two-light). The left wing has a narrow single-light window, while the recessed second bay contains ground and first-floor stair-windows divided by a brick panel in a full-height reveal beneath a carved ashlar tablet and hood-mould. On the first floor, the porch features a projecting bay supported on moulded brick brackets, with a narrow single-light window, corbelled brick cornice and hood, and the left return has a weathered ashlar tablet. The left wing similarly has a projecting bay with chamfered angles and continuous hood-mould, with a single-light attic window above. The right wing has a single-light window (formerly two-light) beneath a continuous hood-mould. All windows have moulded brick reveals of two orders and 20th-century casements. The wings display brick tumbled and coped gables with shaped kneelers and corbelled pinnacle shafts. The porch has ornate crowned shafts to the buttresses executed in red and yellow brick. The right wing features a datestone inscribed 1831 and a projecting central section with tumbled brick off-sets rising to a bellcote above the gable, with a chamfered arched niche and brick bands. A cogged brick eaves cornice runs along the recessed bay and returns of the wings. The main range has axial and end stacks. To the left is a lower section with a single window and cogged brick eaves cornice, incorporating an octagonal angle turret surmounted by a 20th-century replacement wooden bellcote. To the rear is a higher single-storey block with a hipped roof. The right return forms the south garden front, arranged in three bays symmetrically (the right bay is a later addition). The central ground floor features a square bay window with a sill band and cogged brick cornice, flanked by canted brick bay windows with full-length windows, cogged brick cornice and hipped roofs. First-floor windows are set in moulded surrounds. A cogged brick eaves cornice runs along this front, with an attic window to the central brick tumbled and coped gable with corbelled finial, and gables to the side bays with ashlar tablets.

Inside, there is a good open well staircase with drop-on-drop balusters.