Rectory House

Rectory House is a 19th-century rectory, originally built in 1820 and extended in 1906. It is now a private house and was formerly associated with the Church of St Michael. The house is constructed of Bath stone ashlar with a low-pitched slate roof concealed behind parapets. A later extension is rendered and has an old tile pyramidal roof.

The house follows a square plan with a southern extension. It has two storeys and a basement. Notable external features include two large chimneys with several clay pots, and four flat pilasters on each front elevation. These pilasters sit on a basement plinth and support a moulded cornice and parapet, continuing upwards to end in semi-circular finials decorated with palmettes. The sash windows have glazing bars and flat stone surrounds, with moulded cornices to the ground floor. The west-facing entrance front is symmetrical, with a three-bay design. A first-floor window is blocked and filled with the arms of a previous owner. Eight steps lead up to the recessed entrance door, a six-panel door with a patterned fanlight set behind an early 20th-century brown stone frontispiece of a round arch with paired columnettes and embellishments.

The interior contains late 18th-century marble fireplaces in the sitting room and library, featuring foliage carving. A dog-leg staircase is present, with stick balusters, a wreathed handrail, and a closed string with carved tread ends. The house was once home to Sir William James Herschel, inventor of the system of identification by fingerprints, in the late 19th century.