The Old Rectory

The Old Rectory is a former Rectory House, dating from 1856 to 1858 and now divided into four separate dwellings. It was designed by G.E. Pritchett of Bishop’s Stortford for the Rev. William Philip Beckett, who was the vicar and also restored the church and built the school. The building cost £2,000. Constructed of coursed, dressed carstone with freestone dressings, it has slated roofs and a double pile plan. The architectural style is High Victorian Gothic.

The north front, which serves as the entrance front, has six bays. The ground floor features three 2-light and one 3-light casement cross windows. A two-leaf French door is located to the west. The first floor has six casement cross windows, all with freestone rusticated dressings. A wooden porch is positioned off-centre, featuring a stone plinth, arched centre, two side panels, internal wooden bracing, a bargeboard gable, and a slated roof. It contains a two-leaf, partly glazed, Gothic arched-headed door. Two 2-light casement dormers with bargeboard gabled roofs are set into the attic. The roof is hipped at the east, with one ridge stack, and verged at the west with a single end gable stack springing from a corbelled-out first floor arch on the return.

The garden front, with four bays, exhibits three ground floor 2-light casement cross windows and one two-leaf French door. Four first floor 2-light casement cross windows are also present. A contemporary conservatory, at a right angle to the east, has a hipped 5-sided gable to the south. Its roof is hipped at the east with one eaves-level stack and two ridge stacks, and contains two 2-light dormers with bargeboard gables. The west return features a single ground floor dressed stone and slated 5-light canted bow window. A single-storey stable and service wing attached at the east is not of special interest.