The Old Rectory

GREAT HASELEY RECTORY ROAD SP60SW (South side) 5/65 The Old Rectory

• II*

Rectory, now house. Probably C15, partly rebuilt 1846. Coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings; old plain-tile roof and crenellated stone stacks. Hall and cross wing with rear range. Front has central door with 4-centre arched head below a 2-light cinquefoil mullioned window and, to left, a similar window and 2 tall windows of 2 lights with cinquefoil heads above and below the transoms, probably C15; to right, projecting gable of taller cross wing with mullioned windows to 3 floors and a bell under a tiled canopy in the gable. Entrance front to left has arcade of 2 segmental pointed arches between gables; at first floor is a central 2-light arched window with tracery and transom, possibly medieval, set within a gabled half dormer and, to left, a C15 window of 3 lights with cinquefoil heads with deep casement moulding and label. Garden front has projecting central gable with crenellated bay at ground floor; all windows with transoms, cinquefoil heads and labels. Interior: 4-bay front range contains an open hall plus a 2-storey bay, now forming a gallery over a through passage. C15 roof has 2 arch-braced collar trusses and a gable frame to left, but the collar truss to right suggests truncation by the present cross wing. There are 2 rows of butt purlins with arched windbraces and the rafters have ashlar pieces. The lower lights of the hall windows are fitted with pine shutters. End gable wall has been rebuilt with a C19 fireplace and now has C20 mullioned windows. C19 rear range contains principal rooms, all with moulded pine beams forming coffered ceilings supported on carved stone corbels. The Rectory was rebuilt by William Birkett, Rector, whose arms appear over the main entrance on a date plaque. (Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, p.620).

Listing NGR: SP6415501823