The Old Rectory

A rectory, now a house, built between 1819 and 1822 for Reverend Thomas Fisher, with later extensions added to the rear. The property is accompanied by garden walls and a ha-ha.

The building is constructed of granite ashlar with slate roofs and brick chimney stacks. It follows a roughly square, double-depth plan with irregular extensions to the rear on the north-west side. The principal rooms are positioned along the south-eastern side, overlooking the gardens.

The house is two storeys tall with a shallow-pitched, hipped slate roof and tall, rectangular gable-end stacks. The principal elevation faces south-east towards the gardens and presents a symmetrical three-bay arrangement. The first-floor windows are three-over-six pane sashes, while the ground-floor windows are six-over-nine pane sashes. The ground-floor window to the right has been altered by the insertion of a late 19th-century canted ashlar bay window. A plat band and deep bracketed eaves run across this elevation and its returns. The entrance front to the right has similar fenestration across three windows, with a keyed flat arch above a six-panel door. The rear elevation is irregular due to a series of remodellings to the service ranges; parts are rendered, and some slopes contain roof lights.

The interior retains its high-quality early 19th-century decorative scheme almost intact. Panelled doors in moulded architraves with contemporary handles are found throughout, along with panelled shutters to the principal rooms and moulded cornicing—that in the parlour enriched with trailing vines. There are moulded architraves to cupboard recesses and other original joinery. The entrance hall from the north-east connects via an arch to the central stair hall and opens to the left to the principal rooms. These feature panelled shutters and shutter boxes, moulded cornices, and one contains a section of original shelving with a heavy cornice above and an extended panelled doorcase, indicating it was used as a library. Both rooms facing the garden have paired, segmental-arched niches in their end walls with reeded uprights and floral bosses. To the right of the entrance hall, another large room is believed to have been where the rector received parishioners, maintaining division between family and public spaces. The rooms contain a variety of wood and stone chimneypieces retaining their original cast-iron grates. The former service rooms have undergone some alterations but retain their layout and some joinery. A larder to the rear retains its slate shelves and half-glazed door.

The open-well stair has paired turned balusters to the open string and a wreathed handrail. Its half-landing features two narrow doors set at angles in the corners, providing access to rooms in the service range beyond, including the former housekeeper's room. First-floor bedrooms retain their shutters and shutter boxes, with fireplaces appropriately sized to their locations. Original floorboards are present throughout the house.

The rectory grounds contain several subsidiary buildings and structures. To the south-west of the house is a walled garden bounded on its north and west sides by high granite walls approximately 3 metres high. A wide doorway with a plank and batten door beneath a segmental-arched head with flush voussoirs leads from the walled garden to the rear yard; a wide buttress stands between the doorway and the house. To the south of the house, a stone-lined ha-ha follows a serpentine line, bisecting the plot and dividing the pleasure grounds from the park paddock beyond.