The Rectory

The Rectory, Fulbridge Road, Paston

A rectory, now a private house, dating from the 13th to 14th centuries with significant remodelling in the early and late 16th centuries and the 19th century. The building is constructed of limestone with an ashlar east front, limestone tile roofs with gabled ends, and brick and stone chimneys. The south wing features a particularly notable brick axial stack with four conjoined octagonal shafts of moulded terracotta.

The building follows an H-shaped plan. The main range is believed to be a medieval aisled hall of 13th to 14th-century date. The east end of the north cross-wing may also be medieval in origin but was remodelled as a two-storey porch in the late 16th century. The south cross-wing probably dates to the early 16th century and has a projection at the centre of its south side. Between the cross-wings on the east side of the hall is an early to mid-19th-century addition of a single storey.

Externally, the building is two storeys with part rising to attic level. The east front is in ashlar with a 1:3:1 bay arrangement. The cross-wings are gabled with moulded coping and finials, featuring four-light moulded stone mullion windows. The right-hand cross-wing, rising to two storeys and an attic, is the former porch, distinguished by a blocked round arch doorway with imposts, spandrels and a moulded cornice above. A projecting single-storey centre section of three bays has battlements, two large twelve-pane sashes and a doorway with a fielded six-panel door with overlight containing an integral lantern, all under hoodmoulds. The south return is asymmetrical at 2:1:2 bays, with a gable on the left containing two large twelve-pane sashes and a French casement below. A gabled projection at the centre has two-light stone mullion windows, and to its right are two bays with twelve-pane sashes on the ground floor and two-light casements above featuring intersecting glazing bars and hoodmoulds.

The interior of the south cross-wing contains a pilastered stone fireplace with panelled overmantel. The room above has a fireplace with a four-centred timber lintel. The room behind, to the west, retains 18th-century panelling and a ceiling cornice. Within the roof of the main hall range are three pairs of trussed rafters, each with two collars halved and lap-jointed with diagonal soffit pegs. The trusses are set on wall-plates approximately four feet six inches inside the walls. At the south end of the main range is a 16th-century clasped purlin roof with collar trusses and wind-braces.