The Old Vicarage

The Old Vicarage is a former vicarage to Christ Church, now a residential home, built in 1871 by the architect Ewan Christian for the Reverend George Foxton.

Materials and Construction

The building is constructed of polychromatic brick laid in English bond with stone dressings under slate gabled roofs. Decorative horizontal bands of blue brick appear throughout at plinth, sill and lintel levels, and a saw-toothed stringcourse runs around the entire building at first-floor level.

Plan and Layout

The building has an irregular plan with principal fronts facing south and west, and a kitchen wing extending north-east. A contemporary detached stable block to the north was converted to residential use in 2007, with a linking extension creating an enclosed courtyard. The house has a central staircase hall from which the principal rooms open, one in each corner, with bedrooms on the first and second floors including a master suite.

Exterior

The building is in Tudor-Gothic Revival style. The two-storey south elevation has a central element which curves at the east end, featuring a three-light stone cross casement window with metal frames at ground-floor level. The main entrance sits to the left under a pointed arch with voussoirs of alternating blue and red brick within a billeted hoodmould. The plank door has elaborate bifurcated wrought-iron hinges and curved braces on the inside. Above the door is a single-pane unhorned sash window beneath a pitched roof that makes a quadrant turn to the east, where there is a two-light metal casement.

This central element is flanked by two taller gabled blocks running north-south, stepped forward on the left and back on the right. The west wing, separated from the centre by a flat buttress with two set-offs at ground-floor level, has two-light stone mullioned windows on both floors with prominent lintels and external louvred shutters. The upper window sits beneath a recessed arched tympanum defined by a raised billeted hoodmould, filled with herringbone blue and red brick. The gable has corbelled brick kneelers, minor tumbling, two double bands of blue brick and a saw-toothed edge.

The recessed east wing has a ground-floor two-light stone mullioned window with unhorned sashes, and above it a single unhorned sash under a triangular relieving arch of alternating blue and red bricks. Both windows have external shutters. The gable repeats the corbelled kneelers and saw-toothed edge but finishes with a half-hip to the south. Between the wings, set back, is a gabled roof running east-west with two rectangular stacks featuring astragal courses and saw-toothed cornices. The east side of the east wing has one four-light unhorned sash on each floor but is largely obscured by a single-storey Flemish-bond brick extension of the late 20th century under a gabled and hipped roof. This extension is not of special interest.

The west elevation repeats the decorative devices of the south front but differs in detail. The recessed south half has a late 20th-century uPVC conservatory (not of special interest) and a two-light first-floor window with unhorned sashes. The lintel projects as a dormer carried on corbelled brick brackets with two arched recesses containing stone quatrefoils with central bosses. The gable has a dentilled edge terminating at a half-hip. The north half has a ground-floor canted bay window with three-light and one-light stone cross casements containing unhorned sashes, and above, a standard two-light mullioned window with unhorned sashes beneath another polychromatic billet-edged tympanum, this time with chequered nogging of red brick alone. The ground floor of the north return is obscured by the 2007-8 extension, but the upper floor has a very tall through-eaves dormer with a blind tympanum filled with herringbone blue and red brick.

The north elevation is plainer, with only blue-brick banding for decoration. It has three four-light sashes on each floor (the lower east window replaced with uPVC), a dentilled eaves cornice and two raking dormers with sills interrupting the cornice. Both dormer windows have been refenestrated in the late 20th century with top-hung uPVC casements. The ground-floor east end is obscured by part of the extension to the east front, with a uPVC door opening into the kitchen and service wing. The east return of this wing is blank up to the attic storey, which has a central external stack corbelled out from the wall, flanked by a four-light unhorned sash on either side. The west gable is similar.

The stable block is of English-bond red brick with one blue-brick band at low level and a dentilled eaves cornice beneath the gabled roof. The middle of three two-light late 20th-century timber casements rises into the tall central gable. The stable doorway on the south side was blocked in 2007-8 and fitted with a window, with a new doorway punched through to its west. Three Velux roof-lights have been inserted. The stables are connected to the main house by a single-storey L-shaped extension of 2007-8 extending westward under a hipped slate roof, which is not of special interest.

Interior

The south doorway opens into the two-storey staircase hall, which has a closed gallery at first-floor level on the west side. The open-well staircase is of stained oak with a panelled apron, closed pierced string and chamfered square balusters with cross bracing. Chamfered square newels of heavier section define each half-landing and have octagonal domed finials with expanded floral lobes and similar drop pendants. The north wall of the hall has been broken through under a triangular arch to link with the 2007-8 extensions.

The south-west ground-floor room has uPVC double doors into the conservatory and a plain white variegated marble chimneypiece with gilded upper bosses, with tall moulded skirting. The south-east room has similar skirting and a pine chimneypiece with fluted jambs carrying scrolled consoles under a frieze decorated with a Greek urn. The ceiling has an original plaster rose with abstract acanthus leaves within an oval and bobbin border. The north-west room has exactly the same chimneypiece as the south-west room but in variegated black marble, with tall roll-moulded skirting and moulded door architrave. The north-east room was originally the kitchen and remains so today, but is entirely fitted with modern stainless-steel equipment. The laundry room and boiler house to its east have been converted to a bedroom. A secondary staircase rises in the rear lobby in a single flight with stick balusters, closed string, square newels and plain moulded handrail. The rear lobby returns south to a plank door with four rails and curved braces, opening into the single-storey extension.

The second half-landing of the staircase opens south into a quadrant passageway leading to a large bedroom now subdivided, which was designed as the principal room of a pair of bedrooms on the west side arranged as a suite and linked via the closed gallery off the staircase. Details are spare, and the same plainness applies to all bedrooms on the first and second floors. The roof structures are of heavy principal and common rafters with raking queen struts.

Historical Context

Until 1850 there was only one centre of population in Gedney Marsh, called Drove End. In 1855 the politician Edward Cardwell (later Viscount Cardwell) and his brother Charles bought some 3,000 acres of land and set about building a new village at Dawsmere, some one and a quarter miles from Drove End. The cottages were built in pairs, along with a smithy, joiner's shop, school, shop and parsonage. A site for a church was provided, along with half the money to build it. The ecclesiastical district of Drove End was created in 1855, but it took another 15 years to build a church. The foundation stone for Christ Church, Dawsmere was laid in 1869, and the church was consecrated on 7 April 1870. The Vicarage was built immediately to its west in 1871, both designed by Ewan Christian. The incumbent was the Reverend George Frederick Foxton (vicar 1871-96). The Vicarage was sold in 1984 and converted to a residential nursing home. It underwent extensions and alterations in 2007-8.

Ewan Christian (1814-1895) was a prolific architect with 2,040 works to his name, including 90 new churches and many church restorations. He was architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from 1851 until his death. His most important secular commission was the National Portrait Gallery in London (1890-95, Grade I). In 1884-6 he was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was considered by his contemporaries 'a safe man', 'in no sense a heaven-born genius, or even possessed of brilliant parts, but a man of inflexible honesty, great industry and great business capabilities'.