The Old Rectory (At North End Of Village, To West Of Church)

The Old Rectory, now a private house, was originally built around 1632 for the rector Dr John Gorsuch. The west front was largely rebuilt in the 18th century, a library wing was added around 1781 for Benjamin Heath, the roof was replaced in the early 19th century, and alterations occurred around 1933. The building was sold around 1937. It is constructed of red brick, with colourwashed roughcast on the front, stucco quoins, and a steep slated hipped roof.

The original structure is a square, three-story building with cellars, facing west. A terrier from 1638 described the original layout as having a parlour, hall, kitchen, milk house, brew house, store house, and two cellars on the ground floor, and nine chambers on the first two floors. The plan is notable for a thick east-west wall dividing the ground floor into two equal rectangles. The north part had a passage, kitchen, secondary staircase, and brewhouse. The south part was occupied by a hall, the main staircase, and a parlour. Two external chimneys were originally on each side wall. The placement of windows on the second floor in both halves suggests that originally, part of those floors were located in the roof space of two parallel pitched roofs, with windows in the east and west gables.

The west front has a symmetrical arrangement of four windows per floor and includes a plinth, a bond pattern in the brickwork, a brick corbelled band at the second floor level, and overhanging eaves with paired brackets. Red brick wings with steep red tiled roofs are attached, with the former library of 1781 to the right, featuring a large Venetian window on the south side, and a two-story, five-window kitchen and service range to the left, topped with a bell turret. Most windows are recessed sash windows with 6/6 panes, with 3/3 panes to three windows on the second floor. A wooden Doric doorcase frames a six-panel fielded door and a semi-circular fanlight with intricate radial and foliate decoration. An open pediment sits atop columns with paterae and flourishes on the cornices.

The east front, which faces the garden, was refaced in the 18th century, featuring two two-story canted bay windows constructed of sandy red brick with black headers and a pilaster on the southeast return. Sash windows with 6/6 panes are present. A Venetian window illuminates the staircase on the south wall. A closed-string secondary staircase, with newels and table-leg turned balusters, rises from the ground floor to the attic. The main staircase is a fine early 18th-century closed-string design with turned balusters, a ramped handrail, panelled newels, and a corresponding panelled dado. Six-panel moulded doors with ovolo architraves are throughout. A stair window, as well as a reset window on the north end, retain heavy ovolo-moulded glazing bars. Fire surrounds with marble slips are found on the ground floor. An old red brick wall runs eastwards from the north end of the service wing, formerly enclosing a stable court.