The Old Vicarage, Stable And Bothy

The Old Vicarage, Stable and Bothy

A vicarage built in the early 1840s of red brick with a tiled pitched roof featuring decoratively moulded kneelers. The architect is not known.

The main building has a roughly square central-staircase plan, with a three-bay principal range running northwest to southeast, a two-bay wing to the northwest, and a former service range to the northeast. The gable ends of both domestic wings are decorated with moulded kneelers. Three large brick chimney stacks rise from the building: two on the southeast slope of the principal range and one on the gable end of the service wing.

Symmetrically arranged sash windows pierce the facades, featuring 6/6 panes on the ground floor and 3/6 panes on the first floor, with brick flat arches on the southwest front, northwest facade, and rear. The principal southwest facade is dominated by a central brick entrance porch, flanked by sash windows on either side with three more above. The porch itself has a tiled roof with decoratively moulded kneelers and contains a three-centred arched doorway in stone with a panelled and glazed door. The doorway is flanked by two chamfered mullioned stone windows.

The northwest side features a projecting gable end with a rectangular glass conservatory added in the late twentieth century (not of historic interest), a sash window above it, and a small four-pane casement window on the attic storey. The two-bay facade to its left contains four sash windows. The northeast rear elevation is defined by a projecting gable end with a sash window at ground floor level, and to the left, the former service wing containing a first-floor sash window and a door and casement window inserted at ground floor level in the late twentieth century.

The interior preserves substantial original features. A large hallway on the ground floor accesses principal rooms to the northwest, which contains a stone Tudor-style fireplace, and to the southeast, which has a plain wooden fire surround. The former kitchen to the north retains a large fireplace for a range. All original doors, cornices and skirting boards remain evident. The hallway is dominated by an open-well half-turn staircase with stick balusters, mahogany wreathed handrail, and curtail step, lit from above by a small octagonal lantern. A contemporary cellar lies beneath. Upstairs, all original doorways, skirting boards and fire surrounds survive, including one with its original grate. A small wooden stair from the landing leads to the attic, which probably served as servants' rooms; parts of the timber crown post roof are exposed here.

Approximately eight metres north of the vicarage stands a stable and gig house with former grooms' accommodation above, contemporary with the main building and constructed of brick with a tiled pitched roof. The south-facing door openings were probably widened at a later date. To the rear is a lunette window, now filled with brick, which formerly lit the gig house. Internally, the structure retains a timber-framed roof, brick and quarry-tiled floors, horse box panelling along the walls, a fixed fodder rack, a vertically planked door with strap hinges connecting the stable and gig house, and a fixed ladder leading to the attic above the gig house where remains of plastering are visible.

Approximately three metres east of the house stands a small contemporary garden bothy, built in brick with a pitched tiled roof.

The Old Vicarage is a characteristic clergyman's house in late Georgian style and stands close to the Grade II* listed parish church. It remains relatively unaltered externally, and its principal rooms preserve their original plan and the majority of their fixtures and fittings. The associated contemporary outbuildings—the stable with gig house and groom's accommodation above, and the garden bothy—remain largely intact and contribute significantly to the historic interest of the vicarage.