Presbytery of Roman Catholic Church of St Mary

Presbytery of Roman Catholic Church of St Mary

This presbytery and parish hall is a two-storey sandstone and brick building dating from 1769, originally built as a priest's house with a chapel attached to the rear. The building has undergone considerable alteration over time and now serves dual purposes with the former chapel converted into parish rooms.

The main house faces east and presents a three-bay elevation with a moulded stone eaves cornice and hipped tiled roof. Modern rendering obscures much of this front, and the central doorway has been altered to form a window, with all fenestration replaced by modern frames. The south elevation, which faces the road, displays more of the original character. It is built of large shaped and tooled stone blocks laid in regular courses, topped with a brick dentil eaves cornice. The roof is pitched at the left end and hipped at the right. A substantial brick chimney stack rises left of centre. The windows here are later insertions with concrete lintels, though the shaped stones within the masonry indicate earlier first-floor window openings. A modern single-storey lean-to extension of roughly coursed rubblestone has been built against the south-west corner.

The west gable wall of the house is constructed of the same large shaped and tooled stone blocks in regular courses. An attic window has been modified with a modern frame, and a narrow window has been inserted nearby. Part of the ground and first floors are obscured by the lean-to extension.

The former chapel projects to the rear and north side of the house and rises to the same height. It is built of hand-made bricks in Flemish bond with a brick dentil eaves cornice and tiled roof. The west gable of the chapel is built of roughly coursed rubblestone with brick wrapping the south-west corner. A central doorway and round-headed window above are modern insertions; rough straight joints in the stonework suggest there was originally a horizontal rectangular window in the gable apex. The north elevation of the former chapel is constructed of roughly coursed rubblestone with a brick dentil cornice and a roof hipped at the left end and pitched at the right. Two large rectangular windows with concrete lintels occupy the centre and right-hand side, with the right-hand window shortened to accommodate an inserted doorway below.

Interior alterations are substantial. The house's layout has been reorganised with the front door relocated from the east to the south elevation and corresponding changes to doorways and corridors. First-floor bedroom ceilings have been lowered, though upper wall sections with picture rails remain visible in the attic space. The roof structure has been significantly modified with many later timber insertions. The former chapel now contains an inserted floor with a narrow staircase in the north-west corner, converting the double-height space into parish rooms. Neither the house nor the former chapel retains original fixtures or fittings of interest.

The modern lean-to extension against the west gable wall is excluded from the listing. The modern floor and staircase inserted into the former chapel are likewise excluded as not being of special architectural or historic interest.