The Old Rectory

The Old Rectory is a late 17th-century rectory, with alterations from the early 19th century, built before 1695 for the Reverend Jordan Tancred. It is constructed of rendered brick with a Westmorland green slate roof. The building is of double-depth plan, and originally presented a symmetrical five-bay facade.

The garden front features rusticated quoins. The central doorway may have originally been a window. The first and second bays on the ground floor have been altered with a later 19th-century canted bay window. The remaining bays contain sash windows with projecting sills and flush-wood architraves. Moulded brackets support the gutter. The roof is hipped, with two original small dormers, each with a hipped roof and a four-pane sash window. Two end stacks exist, reduced in height; the one on the right is embraced by a small gable and has a lower ridge connected to the roof slope. Later additions are attached to the right and left sides and are not of particular architectural interest.

The rear of the building, facing the yard, forms an entrance front with a similar fenestration to the front facade. A square porch was added in the early 19th century, featuring a doorway with astragal glazed overlight, a frieze, casement-moulded cornice and a blocking course.

Inside, the rear doorway opens into a wide stair hall with two facing doorways, each with architraves, panelled surrounds and six-panel doors with raised-and-fielded panels. To the left, at a right angle, is a doorway with a glazed fanlight and dentil impost within the architrave, which includes a false keystone. A dog-leg closed-string staircase of fine quality stands opposite this door; it features an oak moulded handrail, square newels and finely-turned chunky balusters of iron twist surmounted by vase-shaped balusters, along with a panelled dado with raised-and-fielded panels. The dining room includes a dentil cornice to the ceiling and 19th-century panelled window shutters. The attic space is characterized by steeply-pitched roofs with principal rafted trusses featuring high collars and diamond-set ridge pieces.

Historical records, from Ralph Thoresby’s Ducatus Leodiensis, indicate the house was built by Reverend Jordan Tancred, who died in 1695, and later occupied by George Flaxton from 1703. The building is considered the best example of a Queen Anne house within the parish.