The Old Rectory, Stable Cottage and yard walls

The Old Rectory, Stable Cottage and yard walls

A former rectory and stable block, now converted to two houses, built in 1864–1865 to the designs of Samuel Sanders Teulon for Reverend Henry Bones.

The house is built in polychromatic walling of red, black and yellow bricks, principally laid in Flemish bond with rows of headers. Later tile hanging at first-floor level across the western and southern fronts displays alternating plain black and red fish-scale tiles. The roof is plain tiled with gables. The building has two floors with a partial basement. The ground-floor plan is arranged in a pinwheel formation around a combined staircase and entrance hall, with a corridor leading north to the service wing.

The western entrance front shows a projecting principal block to the right and a recessed service range to the left. The principal block features a gabled single-storey porch on its left flank with a three-light stained-glass window and polychromatic tympanum incorporating a stone carved with the cypher 'HCB' for Henry Christopher Bones, with decorative bargeboards. The principal entrance is positioned to the left of the porch with an arched head and plank front door, above which sits a circular stone with initials 'JB' for John Bones in a trefoil. To the right of the porch is a tall staircase window with an arched head and X-shaped transoms, its surround featuring notched patterns in the woodwork with chamfers and distinctive jewelled stops, a detail repeated across the building's windows. Further right, a broad slightly-projecting gable carries an heraldic shield set in an arched recess at first-floor level, apparently cast in metal. The northern flank of this block has a wide four-light window to the entrance hall, with a two-light window with pointed relieving arch above at first-floor level. The recessed service wing contains a cluster of four lancet windows at ground floor lighting the corridor, with a four-light casement above under the eaves. To the left is a twentieth-century ground-floor doorway replacing a former window, with a cross window above. A projecting gabled wing features a wide projecting chimney breast rising from the kitchen, decorated with patterned brickwork including a series of offsets with tumbled bricks and ending in a stone cap with miniature crenellations, a treatment common to other stacks across the building. The service court is enclosed by a wall at ground level. The first floor behind this enclosure was extended in the later nineteenth century to supply further bedrooms and has tiled walling with a two-light casement at first-floor level.

The southern garden front has three bays with projecting gabled bays to either side. The left gable has two-light windows to each floor with mullions and transoms, arched heads and tiled tympana. A similar window is positioned at centre left, while the right bay contains a two-storey angled bay window with a hipped roof.

The eastern front has a blind gable at left, capped by a chimney stack. To its right is a projecting gabled bay with the dining room's square bay window at ground-floor level, containing four mullioned lights with hipped roof, above which is a three-light casement window with mullions and transom. Recessed at right, the service wing has single, two and three-light windows set in patterned brickwork, with a tall window with X-shaped transoms indicating the back stairs. At the far right is a half-hipped gable and a flush chimney with tumbled brickwork to the offsets, adjoining the wing that was raised in height with polychromatic brickwork matching the original structure.

The northern end has the gable end of the raised wing at left with a canted oriel window to the first floor supported by four ogee-shaped wooden brackets rising from a stone corbel, with the service court wall to the right.

The entrance porch contains three stained-glass lights and leads to the hall, which is divided by a screen of two gothic arches. The hall contains an open-well staircase with splat balusters featuring cut-out decoration, ball finials and newel posts supporting angled braces, and an angled fireplace. Window and door surrounds throughout have roll mouldings with moulded bases. Ground-floor reception rooms have simple cornices, and tubular metal picture rails survive in several rooms. Original carved stone fire surrounds with chamfered edges and tiled inserts remain on both floors, though the original kitchen hearth is now sealed. Doors are mostly four-panelled with chamfered surrounds and matching shutters. Brick wine bins with slate shelves survive in the basement.

To the north east of the house stands the contemporary stable block and its yard, now converted to domestic use. The yard is enclosed on the western side by a surrounding wall. The western exterior of the stable block shows blocked arches of the former coach house and stables to left and right of a five-light opening, now glazed but originally barred. A dormer window with hipped roof marks the position of the original taking-in door for the hay loft. The yard is covered at its southern end by a corrugated roof of later twentieth-century date. The eastern side has a twentieth-century glazed door at left and a two-light window at right with a chimney between featuring offsets and tumbled brick. To the right is a three-light window, with the remainder of this side joined to a single-storey twentieth-century extension. The southern gable end carries a lean-to glass house with brick walling to its lower body, partially rebuilt. The interior retains the angled fireplace of the former tack room, with other areas opened out.

The walls of the stable yard and kitchen yard survive to full height.