The Old Rectory And Adjoining Garden

The Old Rectory is a house, formerly a rectory, dating to around 1747, with alterations and additions from the early to mid-19th century. It is constructed of red brick with sandstone dressings, partly rendered, and has slate roofs. The property comprises an early 18th-century range parallel to a later 19th-century range behind. The house is two storeys and an attic, set above a basement. It features a chamfered stone plinth, a wooden dentil eaves cornice, and parapeted gable ends with moulded stone kneelers and copings. There are three dormers with two-light wooden casements in triangular-pedimented gables. The front range has integral brick end stacks, and an integral stack at the rear, with two stacks to the rear addition. Windows are sashes, likely originally with glazing bars now removed, with painted stone cills and painted stone lintels featuring raised triple keystones. A central ground-floor window replaces a former doorway, evidenced by straight joints beneath, with a painted wooden raised triple keystone. A full-height canted bay is present on the rear return of the later range, while the right-hand return front features a pair of early 19th-century half-glazed doors with margin lights. A section of a stone-coped red brick garden wall at the rear incorporates a likely reset round archway with a moulded stone architrave and a reset datestone inscribed with ‘1711’. The interior has been largely remodelled in the early to mid-19th century. The entrance hall is divided by three segmental arches, and a rectangular-well stone staircase rises in three flights, featuring an open string, cast-iron balustrade with husk-type balusters, a moulded handrail and a curtail with a columnar foot newel. A landing continues the balustrade with two large arches and a rectangular top light. A separate early 19th-century dog-leg wooden staircase has a closed string, stick balusters, turned newels, and a ramped handrail. Six-panelled doors with moulded architraves are found throughout the house. According to D. Parkes, writing in 1805, an inscription on the east wall of St. Peter’s Church attributed the rebuilding of the chancel and parsonage house to Dr. Egerton Leigh in 1747.