The Old Rectory

The Old Rectory is a red brick building with ashlar and polychrome brick dressings, dating from 1862, when it was designed by James Fowler, the Diocesan Architect. It was renovated around 1980. The building has an irregular double-depth plan and an entrance facing north. It is two storeys high and built on a chamfered brick plinth.

The north front has three gabled bays, with a projecting wing on the right. The central porch, located within the angle of the right wing, is single-storey and enclosed. It features a buttress with an offset, pointed, polychrome brick arch with an ashlar keystone, and a flat roof. The inner entrance has a part-glazed, panelled door in a chamfered reveal, beneath a moulded ashlar lintel. To the right, there’s an unequal 9-pane sash window within a quoined, chamfered ashlar surround, beneath a flush herringbone brick panel and a polychrome brick segmental-pointed relieving arch with a flush ashlar key. To the left, an unequal 6-pane sash window is set in a similar surround. The first floor has similar 6-pane sash windows to the side bays, and a central, pointed plate-traceried 2-light window above the porch, with lancets and a cinquefoiled roundel beneath a polychrome brick arch. Flush blue and yellow brick bands highlight the impost and sill levels. Projecting, stepped brick eaves are on the gables. Axial stacks have tumbled-in brick to the offsets.

The right return front, which forms the garden front, has two bays, with a projecting gabled wing to the right; this wing incorporates a ground-floor brick canted bay window with sashes in quoined ashlar surrounds, beneath a hipped roof. There’s a 9-pane sash window to the left bay in a similar surround, and a relieving arch as on the north elevation. A single 6-pane first-floor window is in a similar surround to each bay (that to the left sits beneath the gable). A small, central 4-pane sash window is found in the angle of the wing with an ashlar surround. Similar brick bands and gable details are present as on the north side, along with a lateral stack. The south side also features similar windows, and a 20th-century conservatory is located in the angle.

Internal original features include Gothic-style chimney-pieces, moulded plaster cornices, and panelled doors with architraves. The building’s style is comparable to Fowler’s Vicarage of 1863 at North Street, West Butterwick.