The Old Rectory And Attached Wall

The Old Rectory, now a school building for Henry Box School, was built in 1723 for Reverend Robert Friend. It features an ashlar front with a hipped stone slate roof and stone ashlar ridge stacks. The building is designed in an early Georgian style with a double-depth plan, standing two storeys high with an attic and a five-window range. The entrance includes a segmental-arched and raised architrave around an early 18th-century eight-panelled door with an overlight. The windows are mid-19th century, consisting of two-pane sashes on the ground floor and horned four-pane sashes on the first floor. Above the door, there are carved arms of Jonathon Trelawney, Bishop of Winchester, who served from 1702 to 1721. The façade is enhanced by raised pilaster strips, a storey band, and five flat-relief aprons beneath a moulded parapet. The roof features three gabled dormers with mid to late 19th-century casements.

At the rear, the elevation is similar, with a semi-circular arched stair-light. The left side wall has two square bay windows with moulded cornices and mid-19th-century tripartite sashes, while the first floor has similar segmental-arched architraves for the horned sashes. The right side wall mirrors this design. To the right, there is a mid-18th-century flat-roofed coach-house, which has a keyed segmental arch over a six-pane sash window with thick glazing bars, above a blocked segmental-arched entry.

Inside, the building features early 18th-century panelled doors. There is a fine panelled room to the left and a room to the right with a dentilled cornice. The hall includes a semi-circular-arched doorway with fluted pilasters and a fanlight leading to the rear stair-light, which has an early 19th-century plaster medallion depicting a harpist. The dog-leg staircase has a panelled dado with fluted pilasters, scrolled brackets, three turned balusters on each tread, and a moulded handrail with a wreathed end. On the first floor, the room to the right has a panelled dado and an early 18th-century fireplace with a stone surround. The rear right room features quarter-turn service stairs with turned balusters on a closed string, while the rear left room has fielded panelling and a fine fireplace with an eared architrave and medallions on the frieze.