The Parsonage

The Parsonage, Rectory, now house

A substantial rectory dating to around 1700, with a rainwater head to the west elevation dated 1716, indicating the building was erected for Peter Blanchard, who became rector in 1714. The structure comprises a front block of coursed rubble with ashlar facade and dressings, and a rear service wing of random rubble with dressed stone quoins and stone copings. The absence of straight joints suggests the rear wing dates from the same period as the front. The building displays a double-depth plan with a vestibule leading to a large rear stair hall, with a service wing to the rear right creating an L-shaped footprint.

The front elevation presents a symmetrical five-window east-facing facade in Classical Provincial Baroque style. A slightly advanced central bay is defined by rusticated pilasters, with similar pilasters at each end. A moulded first-floor string course and cornice sit beneath a panelled parapet with moulded coping. The focal point is the central doorway, which features a bolection-moulded surround and a very fine shell hood supported on richly carved brackets. The original eight-panel door retains two glazed lights and a rectangular fanlight. Three dormers break the hipped early 19th-century slate roof: two are gabled, while one features a segmental head with 20th-century two-light small-pane casements. All main windows are 12-pane early 19th-century six-over-six-pane sashes.

The two-storey building with attic has brick and stone stacks. The left east return comprises two windows with a similar parapet cornice. The right west return contains three windows, including thick glazing bars to 20th-century nine-over-nine-pane first-floor sashes above a lean-to with a keyed arch to a doorway. Below this is a three-light cyma-moulded mullioned and transomed cross window with a turnbuckle to the opening casement. The rear elevation displays similar two-light cross windows and a 20th-century horned six-over-six-pane sash above a chamfered doorway with scroll-carved brackets to a flat hood. The two-storey rear wing features a three-light chamfered stone-mullioned ground-floor window with leaded casements and original turnbuckles on its east return, while the right return has a similar two-light cross window to the ground floor, a 19th-century three-over-six-pane sash, and a centre-hung 16-pane casement to the first floor.

The interior retains original moulded cornices throughout, along with bolection-moulded panelled doors and plain two-panel doors. Early 19th-century architraves and panelled doors with shutters appear elsewhere. The front left room features early 19th-century reeded architraves with roundels and restored dado panelling. The front right room has a late 17th-century bolection-moulded architrave to its fireplace, while the rear right room contains a similar fireplace, late 19th or early 20th-century strapwork ceiling, an 18th-century china cupboard, and dado panelling. A stop-chamfered beam is present in the rear kitchen. The rear left room is fitted with 18th-century china cupboards set into recesses, with bolection-moulded panelled lower doors.

The entrance vestibule opens into the rear stair hall via a lobby containing a groined plaster vault decorated with bay leaf swags and foliate branches. The staircase is a very fine open-well example with dog gates, a ramped handrail, turned balusters to the open string, turned pendentives, and gadrooned finials. The stair rises to the attic storey, which features a gallery to the front with cornicing and beading to the springers beneath a plaster vaulted ceiling. This ceiling is barrel-vaulted to the end bays and groin-vaulted with ribs and pendentives to the three central bays. The roof structure comprises butt-purlin roof trusses. The rear service wing has a gabled pantile roof and a 1980s stone end stack.