Kings Old Rectory

Kings Old Rectory is a detached house dating back to the 15th century, with significant additions from the 16th and 17th centuries, and alterations in the 18th century. The construction incorporates dressed limestone, some rendered surfaces, and a timber-frame refronting. The roof is half-hipped, covered in tiles, and features stone and brick stacks.

The original core of the house is a three-bay range from the 15th century, including a kitchen dating to around 1500. Rear wings were added in the 16th and 17th centuries. The main entrance is at the rear. The two-storey kitchen range has a chamfered, square-headed stone door surround to the left with a ledged door featuring good iron fittings, and a four-light recessed chamfered mullioned casement with a hoodmould to the right. The first floor above has a four-light hollow-chamfered mullioned casement with a hoodmould, and a hipped attic dormer. A wing to the left has a Tudor-arched ribbed door with iron fittings and a single leaded casement to the right. It also features a three-light mullioned casement with a dripstone to the left, and a 20th-century three-light casement and single leaded light to the first floor. The rear of the wings is characterized by two three-light mullioned casements with dripstones on the ground floor, two 20th-century casements on the first floor, and two three-light wooden mullioned casements in the attic gables. A large double stack is situated in the valley between the wings. The east wing has a two-light leaded casement, a four-light mullioned casement with a hoodmould on the ground floor, a single casement, and a tripartite plate glass sash on the first floor. The front elevation was previously windowless on the ground floor but now has three 20th-century mullioned casements with hoodmoulds. A large external stone stack with offsets is positioned to the left, serving the kitchen. The first floor has a four-light and a three-light hollow-chamfered mullioned casement with hoodmould, plus a single three-light wooden mullioned casement, all with leaded lights.

A 15th-century gateway is attached to the west side, featuring a large Tudor-arched cart entry and a smaller Tudor-arched pedestrian entry to the left, topped with a pitched verge. The masonry of the gateway extends into an attached former cottage.

The interior retains timber-framed internal partitions, jowled main posts, and a three-bay roof to the main range. The kitchen has chamfered beams with bar stops, two chamfered wooden door surrounds, and ground floor doors featuring two raised panels and H-L hinges. A drawing room in the west wing was refitted in the early 18th century and features raised full panelling, shutters, a square stone fireplace. The dining room in the east wing has an early 18th-century egg and dart and guilloche moulded plaster ceiling cornice, and a bolection moulded stone fireplace. An early 18th-century staircase rises from the west wing, with a panelled dado and wide, moulded ramped handrails. A newel post with small stair casements survives from a former staircase position in the southwest corner of the wing. A first floor drawing room above the kitchen is panelled with moulded edges, an ovolo and cyma moulded cornice, and a bolection moulded fireplace. A first floor study incorporates reset 17th-century wainscot panelling. Attic and main stairs feature splat balusters to the landings.

The former rectory was owned by Kings College, Cambridge, until 1923.