The Old Vicarage

The Old Vicarage, Market Drayton

A former vicarage built in 1839-40 and re-fronted in the mid- to late 19th century with Gothic detailing. The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar quoins, a pitched slate roof, and tall grouped polygonal chimneys to the south roof.

The building is roughly square on plan with a small rear extension added in the late 20th century. It comprises two storeys with attic and cellar.

The principal elevation faces south-east and is symmetrical, consisting of five bays with a central projecting gabled bay. The windows are principally twelve-light timber sashes with Gothic style detailing. A decorative brick corbel table runs below the eaves, with corbelled masonry brackets at the outer corners and to the corners of the projecting bay. A dormer window to the left of the central bay was added in the late 20th century. The addition of a later flue within the wall has slightly modified the central bay to the right. The north-west and north-east elevations also have stone dressings and similar style windows, with attic windows generally smaller, being three over three pane sashes. The flank elevations are multi-phased gabled brick ranges that adjoin later 20th century extensions to the rear of the building. The central range of the north-east elevation has a corbel table below the eaves and the main entrance is defined by a fluted door case with a semi-circular fanlight under an open pedimented hood.

Internally, the rooms retain their fireplaces, decorative moulded cornices, and carpentry including skirting boards, panelling, doors and cupboards. Hinged shutters with locking bars and boxed recesses for storage of shutters survive in most ground floor rooms. There is a three-centred arched recess in the sitting room, possibly a niche for a sideboard. The larger south-east reception room has been opened up from an original two-room layout, resulting in the loss of a central double fireplace that originally serviced each former room. This fireplace is blocked on the first floor with the flue visible in a cupboard in the attic storey. The chimney was replaced by a new flue on the south-east elevation, which was later blocked, and a second new fireplace was built on the north-east elevation.

The straight-flight staircase of 1839 has stick balusters and a plain moulded handrail, lit by a rectangular lantern. Steps to the rock-cut cellar are below this staircase. The cellar contains three rooms and is supported by large chamfered timber beams, with two chutes in the west room.

On the first floor there is a central open landing, altered on the north-west side to form a passageway linking to the west range. A 20th century staircase leads off the landing to the attic storey, cutting across an original window. A small 19th century fireplace survives in one of the attic storey bedrooms. Sections of the timber roof are exposed in the attic storey and in the roof space, displaying a variety of scantling and assembly methods.

The Old Vicarage replaced an earlier vicarage which stood close to the west door of the church. The new building was constructed on land further to the south-west of the church in 1839-40. No building occupied the site prior to this, according to an estate map of 1833, and a Faculty plan dated 20 March 1839 shows the proposed vicarage in its current location. The Faculty approving the construction was passed as the old vicarage was "very ruinous and much out of repair".

The 1839 plan shows the vicarage on a narrow plot with a bowling green to the west and a National and Sunday school to the south-west. It was constructed on an L-shaped plan, with a small rectangular out-building to the north-west as shown on a tithe map of 1840. The vicarage appears on an 1843 map of Market Drayton with outbuildings, including stables or a coach house, to the north-west. The First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (published 1886) shows additions to the vicarage including a range added on the north-west elevation. Structural evidence shows that the main front was remodelled in the Gothic style in the mid to late 19th century. A number of further modifications were made to the building and gardens in the 20th century, and it remains in residential use.