The Old Rectory, Wall And Gate Piers

The Old Rectory is a large house dating back to the 14th century, significantly enlarged around 1520 by Antony Ellis, a wool merchant of the Staple of Calais. The building has undergone further alterations in the 17th and 19th centuries, and more recently in the 20th century. It is constructed of coursed squared limestone rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings, and has a pantile roof to the front, featuring a raised crow-stepped gable with a finial and a central ridge ashlar stack.

The entrance front has five bays, with the left-hand three bays projecting and roofed under a catslide. It contains a planked door, a two-light casement window, and a small opening to the left of the door. A 16th-century stair turret with a facetted corner and a single upper light is to the right. Further features include a four-light 16th-century window, a panelled door with a four-centred head and hood mould, and a lower 18th and 20th-century kitchen range. The garden front shows evidence of rebuilding, with a French door in a 17th-century window opening, a three-light 17th-century window, and two 16th-century four-light windows, possibly reset. The first floor has single 16th-century three and four-light windows, and a two-light 17th-century window. Gable windows on the end elevation also include 16th-century four-light windows to both ground and first floors, and a two-light window in the garret. The 16th-century windows have cavetto mullioned lights with arch heads, bowtell-moulded surrounds, and drip mouldings.

Internally, the original 14th-century phase is visible in a wall between the parlour and a lean-to range, which has three pointed openings, two now blocked. A 17th-century chimney stack was inserted into the parlour. The ceiling features moulded spine beams with run-out stops, accented with diagonal steps of black, ochre, and red, and chamfered and stopped joists. The 17th-century newel staircase has turned bobbin balusters, moulded handrails, and square newels with carved tops. A series of interesting 16th-century wall paintings, portraying stylised trees, peacocks, and deer in red and yellow, are found on the first floor. The oak clasped purlin roof has queen post trusses and arched wind bracing.

Attached to the gable end is a wall and a gateway with square rusticated ashlar piers having moulded bases and hemispherical coping. A planked door is set within an ashlar surround, featuring an incised lintel, with a coped wall above. The Ellis family, who owned the property, were related to the Coney family, also wool merchants, of nearby Bassingthorpe. Antony Ellis also built the adjacent Parish Church in 1519.