The Old Vicarage

The Old Vicarage is a Grade II listed building located on Church Lane in Bitton. It consists of two parts: the southeast section was built in 1778, while the southwest portion was enlarged and rebuilt in 1823 and later. The structure features coursed rubble with freestone quoins and dressings, topped by a hipped slate roof. The earlier part of the house is two storeys high with three bays, a recessed centre, and windows arranged in a 2:1:2 sash configuration, with only the first-floor left-hand window retaining its glazing bars. A central portico supported by two Tuscan columns features a flat entablature, cornice, and blocking course.

The later part of the building is larger and designed in a Tudor-Gothic style, rising to two and a half storeys with a parapet supported by modillions. This section is irregular in shape, featuring octagonal chimney shafts, mullion windows, and various gables, including a ground floor bay window on the southeast side.

Attached to the north of the main house is a lower extension that houses a former coach-house, which is gabled and constructed of rubble with a slate roof, featuring pigeon holes in the gable on the west side. Inside, it is said to contain inscriptions, including advice 'to my successor' by Reverend H T Ellacombe from 1835, who also authored an archaeological account of the Parish Church. The Old Vicarage is set apart from other buildings by the famous and exotic arboretum cultivated by Reverend H T Ellacombe, who wrote "In a Gloucestershire Garden" and "In my Vicarage Garden and Elsewhere" around 1893.