The Old Rectory

The Old Rectory is a house, originally a rectory, likely dating from the 15th or 16th centuries. It was significantly altered around 1840 and further enlarged in the mid-19th century. The front section is timber-framed, partially rebuilt and extended in red brick, with a plain tile roof. It originally consisted of three framed bays, with a later parallel range built to the northeast and a further addition to the northwest. The house has a single storey and attic, and two storeys. Four dormers are visible in the roof; one from the 19th century on the left, with planted timbers and a two-light diamond-leaded casement, and three from the 17th century on the right with 19th-century three-light metal casements. The jettied gables have moulded bressumers and carved brackets, with decorative framing, notably intersecting diagonal framing on the right and rendered imitation framing on the left. A large brick ridge stack is located off-centre to the left, with another stack consisting of two diagonally-placed shafts to the left-hand 19th-century addition. The rear range features integral brick end stacks and a brick ridge stack off-centre to the left. The front has a two-window facade, with two- and three-light segmental-headed wooden casements. A centrally positioned half-glazed 19th-century door is accessed via a rendered 19th-century gabled porch with two 20th-century boarded doors. A mid-19th-century service wing projects at right angles to the left, terminating in a pair of former cottages with a central brick ridge stack. A small 17th-century attic window with two diamond mullions is set into the right-hand gable end. The rear elevation includes a range from around 1840 distinguished by a dentil brick eaves cornice. It has three bays, with wooden cross windows on the first floor and three-light mullioned and transomed wooden casements on the ground floor, extending to floor level. Inside the original front range, pairs of chamfered spine beams are visible. Large open fireplaces are located in the left-hand and central ground-floor rooms; the first features dressed grey sandstone reveals and a cambered wooden lintel, while the second has a reset 19th-century glazed tile surround and a rectangular stone panel in the stack to the left. The roof structure comprises collar and cambered tie-beam trusses with queen struts, the end truss featuring v-struts, and pairs of purlins with wind braces. Original wattle and daub infill panels are also present. The circa 1840 range incorporates an 18th-century-style fireplace in the dining room, with a lugged architrave, carved frieze and dentil cornice, and a late 18th-century fireplace with a central urn and husk swags adorns the drawing room. A circa 1840 three-flight staircase with winders at the foot, open string with cut brackets, stick balusters (two per tread), curtail, ceiling rose, and panelled window shutters is a notable feature. The house appears to be situated within a former moated site, evidenced by a ditch to the northeast. Various garden features, not included in this listing, incorporate fragments of dressed and carved masonry, possibly resulting from alterations to the nearby Church of Saint Bartholomew.