Church Close

This is a substantial house, originally the rectory for Coningsby, dating back to the 14th century, with significant additions and alterations through the 15th, 16th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The building is largely timber-framed, now clad in 19th-century yellow brick, with some areas in 15th-century red brick and brick dressings, alongside ashlar elements. It has slate roofs, some with raised brick coped gables, and a variety of brick stacks, including a single tall ridge stack and wall stacks.

The original core is a 14th-century aisled hall of two bays. A timber-framed cross wing was added between 1350 and 1463 and subsequently bricked over in 1463 by the then rector, John Croxby. The front of the house presents an irregular seven-bay facade; the third bay from the left projects and is gabled. The ends are in 19th-century yellow brick, while the central bays are red brick. A 20th-century entrance door is set in a 19th-century chamfered brick surround with a segmental arch. To its right is a 16th-century fixed window with a four-centred arched head, and to the left a sash window with a segmental brick head. A panelled door is covered by a 20th-century gabled wooden porch, with a further sash window alongside. The first floor has three sash windows, a blank opening, and a three-light cross-mullioned wooden window. Two two-light casements and a small fixed light are visible in the garrets, one leaded.

Inside, the moulded base cruck truss of the original hall remains. It features octagonal capitals and bases, carved human head decorations, and a grotesque mask at the apex, all of high quality. Above the hall is a crown post roof with cusped braces. The hall was built around 1345 by the then rector, William Hillary. The original two-bay crown-post roof is preserved, with a plain post connected by tension braces to a cambered tie beam and concave braces from the post to the collar purlin. In the 16th century, the hall was floored over and an axial chimney stack was inserted. An 18th-century staircase was also added within the hall space. It is believed that the then Rector, John Dyer, was responsible for the full-height mid-18th-century panelling in the parlour. The house’s history is documented from William Skelton’s 1602 probate inventory, and subsequent terriers from 1606 onwards. In 1729, the living passed to the Poet Laureate, Laurance Eusden, who died there a year later.