The Old Rectory And Attached Railings

The Old Rectory and attached railings

Former rectory, now a private house, located on the east side of All Saints' Road in Wyke Regis. The building may contain 13th or 14th century work in the basement, but was mainly rebuilt and extended in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It is rendered with slate roofs.

The building is set against the west boundary of the churchyard and may originally have started as a church house of single-room depth, probably entered from the upper level. It has been greatly extended and modified over time, with an L-plan main range and a lower service range at the north end.

The exterior shows 3 storeys on the west side, reducing to 2 storeys with basement on the east side. The entrance front is largely composed of sash windows, original or carefully repaired. To the right is a hipped projecting arm with three 12-pane sashes at second floor and a 15-pane plus tripartite 5:15:5-pane sash at first floor, the latter opening onto a small wrought-iron balcony. The ground floor has a panelled door set in broad pilasters with heavy caps, flanked by 12-pane sashes. This section has a stone plinth and heavy mid band. To the left, set back, the top floor has 3 steel casements above 2 small flush 12-pane sashes, and at ground floor a replacement sash and a deep-set door. The lower hipped service wing contains six 12-pane sashes and a projecting full-height section under a swept-down roof. The garden front, which is double-hipped to a central valley, features a 2-storey bowed oriel with 8:12:8-pane sashes and renewed dentil cornices, above a tripartite sash. To the left, in 2 bays, are 12-pane sashes and a flat-roofed extension with canted bay at the south end.

The front facing the churchyard is cement rendered in 2 sections, with the right section slightly stepped back. Far left, set at mid height in the wall, is a 3-light small-pane casement, followed by 2 large 1-pane sashes in reveals over 1 similar window, and a central part-glazed panelled door in heavy pilasters with deep entablature at the middle level, with basement below. The right section has a smaller 12-pane window, and each part has a casement opening to the narrow basement area facing a retaining wall to the churchyard. Each section has a separate run of small spearhead railings, returned at the door and the right-hand end.

The interior was restored in 1992 after a period of neglect. In the basement wall adjacent to the churchyard is a mediaeval blocked stone pointed arch with simple chamfered members; other early work may be incorporated in the structure. Elsewhere, the detail is late 18th or early 19th century, including a fine open-string staircase with stick balustrade and wreathed mahogany handrail rising in long flights in a narrow well through the full height of the garden range on the west side. Some shutters and panelled doors remain, with matching detail being reinstated. The archaeological importance of the exposed medieval arch, uncovered since the RCHME information and the former list were published, would merit further investigation.