The Old Rectory And Attached Wall

THE OLD RECTORY AND ATTACHED WALL

A rectory, now a house, located at Standlake Church End. The building is of 13th-century origin, substantially remodelled and enlarged with hall and parlour ranges built circa 1480–1500 for Dr. Richard Salter. It was further extended to the right and the parlour wing remodelled in 1661 for John Dale, with alterations made around 1850 for Reverend Francis Tuckwell.

The structure is built of coursed limestone rubble, rendered to the centre, beneath a gabled stone slate roof with 17th-century pyramidal finials. A ridge stack of stone finished in brick rises from the roof, and 17th-century stone lateral stacks with a sundial to the right are present.

The plan comprises a hall and cross wing arrangement: a 13th-century right chamber block, a late 15th-century hall, and a left parlour wing. The building presents a 4-window range across the front. The left gable is two storeys tall with late 15th-century hood moulds over 20th-century windows. The right gable is two storeys and attic, featuring timber lintels over a two-light leaded casement, an 8-pane sash, and a tripartite sash. The central hall range rises one storey and attic with a 2-window range, incorporating a mid-19th-century outshut to the front with flat stone arches over mid-19th-century double doors and 20th-century three-light casements; similar casements appear in gabled dormers.

The right side wall contains a late 15th-century two-light round-headed window and cross window, plus a mid-17th-century one-bay extension. The left side wall displays hood moulds over mid-17th-century chamfered stone-mullioned windows of two, three, and four lights, and a mid-17th-century stone lintel with Vitruvian scroll detail above a blocked door. The rear of the left wing, built around 1850, incorporates a reset 15th-century pointed moulded doorway and a lateral stack. The rear wall features sashes.

Internally, the 13th-century chamber block to the right contains a blocked oriel opening to the rear and a blocked first-floor solar doorway. The roof structure is of 13th-century date, comprising coupled rafters of very slight scantling and 13th-century common rafters of poles. An early 18th-century dog-leg staircase with winders and turned balusters is present, and a ground floor room retains 17th-century panelling from Magdalen College, installed here around 1850.

The hall range features a late 15th-century two-light hollow-chamfered stone-mullioned and round-headed window in the front wall, with a screens passage to the right. The 5-bay hall roof contains two queen-post trusses to the right and one to the left, with unusual scissor trusses at the centre of the former open hall; the roof incorporates trenched through-purlins and windbraces. A ceiling was inserted in the 17th century. The ground floor displays mid-19th-century plasterwork, while the first floor retains mid-17th-century panelled cupboards. A room to the left, remodelled around 1661, features timber-framed partition walls and a moulded stone fireplace with black and white chequer-work to the inner walls and faded painted panels to the overmantle.

The parlour range to the left contains two late 15th-century trusses to the front with cusped pinnacles and struts. Features dating to around 1661 include stop-chamfered beams with heart-shaped stops on the ground floor, an open fireplace with a stop-chamfered bressumer on the ground floor, and a moulded stone fireplace on the first floor.

An L-shaped 18th-century limestone rubble wall extends approximately 20 metres to the right of the building.

The 13th-century roof structure is noted as very rare and complete, comprising timber of extremely small dimensions, which may reflect lost vernacular traditions of non-permanent building techniques using poles.