Former Vicarage

Former Vicarage

A two-storey limestone rubble building with brick detailing, arranged as two parallel ranges beneath hipped tile roofs. The front range sits under a single hipped roof, whilst the rear range is divided into two sections, each with its own hipped roof. The south-west rear bay contains a shallow cellar. First-floor levels vary between the front and rear ranges and between sections of the rear range.

The front range follows a three-cell plan with internal end stacks. The central cell appears to have been unheated originally, and the larger eastern cell spans two bays. The central and eastern bays have since been opened together as one space, with the staircase repositioned at the rear of the central cell. The front elevation presents three asymmetrical bays. A stone threshold and shallow plinth run across the front, with a brick storey band and dentil eaves course extending to the rear. Tall gable-end internal brick stacks rise prominently. The entrance to the central bay leads into what was formerly a narrow hall, with a broad six-panel door in deep flush-panelled linings and a lion head knocker, now sheltered beneath a later splayed canopy.

Ground-floor windows sit beneath cambered brick arches. Two have paired six-pane 20th-century timber casements, whilst the right-hand example is a tall six-over-six pane sash, since enlarged. First-floor windows are 20th-century three-over-three pane sashes. Stone quoins flank the north-facing entrance front and the ground floor of the south-east angle; brick quoins appear elsewhere. North and east elevations are painted. The rear bathroom wing is weatherboarded.

The right-hand return is constructed in limestone rubble with no apparent break in construction between the ranges, though the brick eaves have been rebuilt. The rear range shows isolated flush brick quoins, indicating alteration and rebuilding. Window details in the mid-18th-century manner are visible, though the sash window is a later, larger insert. Two 20th-century cambered-headed windows have been inserted to the front range.

The left-hand return is similarly built in limestone rubble without a construction break, with 20th-century sashes to the upper floor. The ground floor is obscured by a later coal shed and garage. A tall internal stack serves the rear range. The rear kitchen wall is patched with now-internal quoins; the first-floor window opening, with an enlarged sash, has flush brick dressings, whilst the ground-floor window is inserted. The left-hand rear wall also contains inserted and altered windows.

Internally, the front range contains a large fireplace opening beneath an exposed bressumer and timber mantelshelf, flanked by 18th-century built-in cupboards with two-panelled doors—the lower panel of each fielded—hung on H hinges and set in panelled frames. The left-hand cupboard has curved shelves and a brick floor. Windows are fitted with panelled shutters on HL hinges with shutter bars. The room features a chamfered transverse beam with a 1-inch chamfer, though the western room was remodelled in the mid-20th century and later. Early 20th-century panelling, imitating 18th-century work, lines much of the space.

The rear range's kitchen contains a plain spine beam. To the west lies a semi-subterranean wine cellar accessed from a lower room; both have brick floors. The staircase has been moved and reconstructed with additional support straddling the removed spine wall, set over a shallow recess. It is an open-string stair with shaped tread ends, a slender moulded ramped rail, columnar newels, and stick balusters—two per tread—all executed in later 18th-century manner.

First-floor rooms contain mid-19th-century reeded fireplace surrounds, one with an ornate mid-19th-century basket grate. Those in the front range are flanked by cupboards with two-panelled doors and H hinges. The roofs appear to have been repaired and rebuilt in places during the 20th century.