Rectory

Rectory. Built in the 1830s with an earlier structure incorporated at the rear and to the right. The building is constructed of stone rubble with brick dressings, and has a double-span hipped slate roof with brick chimneys; a projecting stone rear stack has a brick shaft. It has an asymmetrical front. The plan is double-depth, with a right-front entrance leading into an open stair hall containing an open well stair. The present plan may be a partial realisation of a larger house. To the right and rear, the accommodation extends into part of a 17th-century rectory building. It is two storeys high. The front has two bays, with a right-front entrance under a six-panel door with pilasters and an entablature. There is a timber sash window to the left of the door, with eight panes under a flat brick arch, brick jambs and a slate sill. Similar sash windows are above, to the left and right, with a small 20th-century window inserted between them. Adjoining the right side of the 1830s section, and set back, is a two-storey projection under a lean-to roof, featuring a blocked round-headed window on the first floor. The earlier rectory range, now a separate property called Southwood, is further back, adjoining the lean-to. The present rectory continues into one bay of this earlier range. Inside, the open well stair has stick balusters and a curved wreathed handrail. The stair hall ceiling includes a central plaster motif and an ornamental cornice. A large round-headed recess is in the right-hand wall of the stair well. A front ground-floor room to the left has a decorated plaster cornice, panelled shutters, and a round-headed recess on the rear wall; the chimneypiece has been replaced. A ground-floor room at the rear left has deep skirting boards, a 19th-century chimneypiece, and panelled shutters. Six-panel doors are used throughout the house. A step down leads to a rear right room, which is part of the earlier rectory range. This room features two boxed-in cross beams, a slate floor, and a partly blocked fireplace to the rear lateral stack, along with a fitted timber seat. The cellar below the 1830s section has a fireplace with a brick lintel and a clom oven. Documents dated circa 1680 and 1727 describe the earlier range, with the 1727 description mentioning a single-storey kitchen and single-storey hall; the room heated by the lateral stack may have been one of these. The front was presumably intended to be stuccoed.