Hunsdonbury

Hunsdonbury is a country house, significantly reduced by the demolition of its central section. It was largely rebuilt in 1832, as noted by a blundered inscription in the cellar, at the expense of the Reverend R.U. Calvert, Rector, with designs by C. Kemp. Further alterations occurred in the later 1840s when the Calvert family moved from Hunsdon House to this former rectory. Around 1950 the central portion was demolished, and the two remaining wings became separate properties. The house is constructed of white brick with stone dressings and some stucco work, with a red tiled roof hidden behind parapets and gable parapets.

Originally a large, irregular rectory in Tudor style – as depicted in Buckler drawings of 1835 and the Tithe Map of 1842 – the present house is a compact, rectangular, two-story building facing north. The two-window north front shows evidence of an original single-story porch around the west window, and the east window is likely a modern replacement, reflecting the former connection to a wing that extended northwards and joined the surviving section now known as The Gate House.

A single-story stucco cloister runs along the east end, featuring three pointed arches, angle buttresses, and intricately moulded figures as hood mould stops to the windows. A lofty, stuccoed, buttressed wall with an openwork cusped parapet connects the house to a tall, octagonal stucco pillar to the west, which supports a lion rampant holding a vane. The wall is partially obscured by the two-story brick and stucco west entrance wing, which has a parapeted porch and an eight-panelled door set beneath a four-centred arch. A single-story canted bay window projects from the south front at the east end.

Inside, a plaster rib-vaulted passage leads from a Gothic, half-glazed garden door in the northeast to a stair hall with a flat panelled ceiling, a stone arched, moulded fire surround, and a Gothic staircase.

Hunsdonbury is an elaborate Gothic rectory of 1832, notable for its outstanding architectural, historical interest, contemporary interiors, and the use of lively grotesques as label stops. Despite its reduced size, its architectural interest remains significant. It is part of a group with The Gate House.