The Old Parsonage

The Old Parsonage is a late 17th-century restaurant and former house situated on Bristol Road, Farrington Gurney. The front elevation is constructed of dressed and squared sandstone, while the rear is of coursed rubble with rendered side walls. Freestone dressings, quoins, and copings are present, along with plain and double Roman tile roofing. The building has a U-shaped facade with two bays advanced at each end, creating a seven-bay front of two storeys. Ground floor windows feature cross mullions with pediments, while upper floor windows are similar but lack pediments. The advanced wings have lost their mullions and transoms, now exhibiting 6-pane sashes. Blind upper windows with painted glazing bars are found on the side walls of the wings. A central doorway is framed by a bolection architrave and a semi-circular hood supported on ornately carved brackets, leading to an 8-panelled door with two inserted lights. Rusticated quoins, a dressed stone frieze with incised scroll decoration, and a deeply coved cornice are also present. A balustraded parapet adorns the central three bays. The rear front mirrors the design with cross mullions and a central, pedimented doorcase featuring carved brackets, and a four-panelled door with two rectangular fanlights. The advanced wings have half-hipped roofs, topped with end ball finials, while one original stone stack remains on the right-hand wing; the other three stacks have been renewed. Inside, the entrance lobby features round-arched doorways with fluted pilasters, opening onto a cross passage and spine corridor with further arched entrances to the principal rooms. A complete contemporary panelled room exists on the ground floor, to the left. An open well staircase displays a fluted newel post, barley sugar balusters alternating with square ones, a ramped handrail and a panelled dado.