The Presbytery of the Roman Catholic Church of St Mary

The presbytery of the adjoining Catholic church, constructed as a pair of houses in 1829.

MATERIALS: the building is constructed of knapped flint with gault brick dressings and the pitched roofs are covered in Welsh slate.

PLAN: the domestic plan of each of the original two houses remains legible though the plan has now been adapted to create a single interconnected building.

EXTERIOR: the building is two storeys high and has a pitched roof with gables facing north-east and south-west where it connects to the church. There is a dentilated eaves cornice and two gault brick ridge stacks.

The north-west elevation faces Newtown and is three bays wide. There is a six-over-six timber sash window at each bay on both storeys except at the centre of the ground floor where there is an oak double-door beneath an arched fanlight. All of the window and door openings have rusticated brick surrounds.

The north-east elevation is gabled and all of the openings are arched with rusticated surrounds. there is a six-panel door with a glazed fanlight at the centre of the ground floor, and windows on each side. There are two sash windows at first floor, and one central window at the attic level. The ground floor windows are rectangular and the arches above them have been blocked-in.

The south-east elevation is more informal and is walled in a mixture of flints and field stones laid as random rubble. The three ground-floor and four first-floor windows are all of different shapes and sizes, timber framed, within surrounds of red brick. There is a small porch on the right-hand side. There are numerous scars and bricked-in features indicative of earlier openings or extensions that have since been removed.

INTERIOR: internally the houses retain their plans with separate staircases and entrance halls. Features of interest include surviving chimney breasts and fireplaces, joinery such as doors and window frames, and the staircases which have open strings, stick balusters, mahogany handrails and curtail steps with monkey tail newels. The attic of the end house has an exposed roof structure of common rafter construction and rough hewn structural members. There is a crude balustrade around the stairway that rises through the centre of the attic floor. There are wide pine floorboards on the attic floor and lath and plaster covers the walls.