The Old Rectory

The Old Rectory is a large house, formerly the rectory for Blunham, built in 1873-4 by the architect John Usher for Reverend Thomas Marlborough Berry. It is constructed of yellow brick with stone dressings and has half-hipped clay tile roofs. The house follows a double pile plan with a gable to each elevation and is two storeys high with attics. It is designed in the High Victorian Gothic style, characterised by a strong vertical emphasis balanced by horizontal bands of dark ochre brick. The windows are largely sashes with two-centred arched heads, many being paired. A moulded brick eaves cornice runs around the building.

The front elevation features a tiled, gabled open porch with a finial and decorative bargeboards. The doorway is two-centred arched and contains a partly glazed six-panel door. A hipped dormer projects forward on corbels and has paired sashes. The right-hand gable chimney stack has a stone shield displaying three coronets. The south elevation has similar windows and hipped dormers, alongside a rectangular projecting bay with a pierced embattled parapet. A recessed central bay contains a two-centred arched opening with alternating stone and brick voussoirs and a moulded dripstone. Within this opening are paired lancet windows extending from the ground to the first floor, and a trefoil window between the first floor and the attic, all of which illuminate the staircase. The building contains a variety of chimney stacks.