Burrington House and Ancillary Building to Rear

Burrington House and Ancillary Building to Rear

A former vicarage designed by George Frederick Bodley in 1862, built of rendered stone with ashlar dressings, red brick stacks, and a plain clay tile roof.

The two-storey house with cellar has a T-shaped footprint. The principal reception rooms are positioned to the north and south, accessed from a central hall and staircase, while service rooms occupy the rear eastern wing.

The western principal elevation features a projecting two-bay range to the left with a slightly projecting gable-end outer bay, and a two-bay range to the right. The left-hand range includes a two-light mullion window beneath a pointed arch to the gable and a four-light mullion beneath a relieving arch at ground floor level. The recessed bay has a two-light mullion window with blind cushed heads to the first floor and a single and two-light window to the ground floor. A lancet window serves the oratory at first floor level, and a pointed arch opening provides access to the porch at ground level. The right-hand range displays two three-light mullion windows to the first floor with ashlar lintels and chamfered cills, and two three-light mullion windows beneath relieving arches to the ground floor.

The north elevation comprises a two-bay range with a four-light mullion window to the first floor and a three-light mullion with blind cusped heads beneath a relieving arch at ground floor level. A projecting square bay with hipped roof and four-light mullion windows to each floor extends to the right. The service range has single lights to the north elevation and an irregular arrangement to the south. Some cast iron guttering with hopper heads survives.

The interior remains largely complete, retaining a dog-leg staircase with ball finial newel posts, a tiled floor to the hall, fireplaces, original fenestration with unusual "fist" catches, and decorative joinery including castellated details above window architraves and scalloped detail above first-floor doors and rear wing corridor windows. The layout is unaltered except for minor changes to the service wing, including removal of the partition wall between the former store and glass cupboard.

To the rear stands a rectangular ancillary building arranged around a courtyard. The ground floor contains a coach house, two horse stalls, a cider room, and servants accommodation. The first floor, accessed via an external staircase, contains a hayloft and harness room above the stalls and cider room.

Bodley designed Burrington House in 1862 for Reverend Philip Hale, vicar of the adjoining Grade II listed St George's Church, at an estimated cost of £1,230. Bodley oversaw the rebuilding and shortening of the church's chancel in 1864. The building's plans are held at Herefordshire Record Office, and it is depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1885. Burrington House represents Bodley's earliest vicarage design, demonstrating how he adapted the High Victorian style of his church work to a Gothic mode appropriate for domestic architecture. Together with contemporary architects including William Butterfield and G. E. Street, Bodley established guidelines for progressive 19th-century domestic design, a mode subsequently pursued by Philip Webb and architects of the William Morris circle.