The Rectory

The Rectory is a former rectory dating to 1836. It was built at the expense of the Grand Western Canal Company as compensation for the canal cutting through the grounds and demolishing the south wing of the earlier Old Rectory. The architect was R Cornish. The house is constructed of plastered stone rubble with stone rubble stacks and brick chimneyshafts, and has a red tile roof, possibly originally slate.

The building is a double-depth house facing north-west, with two principal front and two back rooms. The front two rooms are separated by the entrance hall, and the right (north-east) two rooms are divided by the staircase. The most important rooms are those on the garden (south-east) front. A series of axial and lateral stacks originally provided heating for the rooms. The Rectory is two storeys high and built in the Tudor Gothic style.

The north-west entrance front has a symmetrical three-window arrangement around a central doorway set behind a flat-roofed porch with an outer Tudor arch containing a plank door and fanlight. The porch has a moulded Beerstone parapet with a shield above the outer arch. Flanking the entrance are French windows, which match the first-floor timber mullion-and-transom windows. These windows have glazing bars arranged as Tudor arch heads to each light and are topped with Beerstone hoodmoulds. The roof is hipped at each end.

The garden (south-east) front is symmetrical, with a similar three-window arrangement. Here, the outer bays project slightly forward. The interior is believed to contain original joinery and other details, although it has not been inspected.