The Old Rectory

THE OLD RECTORY

House, former rectory. Built in 1846 according to the owner, with architect J Haywood. All architectural features are consistent with this date. The building is constructed of snecked mudstone with rusticated ashlar quoins and Hatherleigh stone detailing. It has stone stacks with ashlar chimney shafts and a slate roof.

The main block is three rooms facing south, with the entrance hall positioned right (east) of centre. The outer rooms have slightly projecting end stacks, and the central room (left of the entrance hall) contains a rear lateral stack. A two-storey front porch projects forward with a slightly projecting side stack serving a first floor room. Rear blocks extend at right angles to both the right and left of the main block's centre. The longer eastern wing comprises three rooms with an axial stack and end stack. The western wing contains the kitchen with a large outer lateral stack. The staircase occupies its own block positioned behind the entrance hall and between the two rear wings, with its roof parallel to the main block. The building is two storeys with a cellar beneath the right end of the main block.

The design is in the Tudor Gothic style, presenting an asymmetrical yet balanced composition. The front elevation has five ground floor windows and four first floor windows (including those in the porch). A roughly central two-storeyed gabled porch dominates the entrance, flanked by two ground floor windows to the left and one to the right. Single-storey bay windows flank these central openings: the left-hand example is canted in plan, whilst the right-hand is rectangular. Three first floor gabled dormers pierce the roofline.

All windows throughout are stone-mullioned with Tudor-arched heads containing iron-framed casements with glazing bars. The ground floor bay windows project in rusticated ashlar. The left (west) bay has canted sides with a hipped roof and a moulded cornice enriched with Tudor motifs in relief and carved lion-head water spouts; each face contains a two-light window with cusped cinquefoil heads. The right (east) bay projects square with an embattled parapet and contains pairs of two-light windows with uncusped tracery. All other windows on the main front are two-light examples with moulded hoods and lozenge labels; all except the ground floor right window have cusped tracery.

The porch has a two-centred outer arch with a richly moulded surround, narrow square-headed lights on each side, and a three-light first floor window above. The porch interior is lined with patterns of coloured and shaped tiles. The front doorway comprises a moulded arch containing panelled and part-glazed double doors.

All roofs are gable-ended. All gables feature shaped kneelers and soffit-moulded coping. The right end stack has divided octagonal chimney shafts, with a similar single shaft serving the porch stack. Chimneys have been removed from the left end and kitchen stacks, though other rear stacks retain plain chimney shafts.

The rear windows are casements with diamond patterns of leaded glass. The right gable end includes a cellar doorway beneath the stack. The outer face of the right (east) rear block shows a regular but asymmetrical four-window front of one-, two-, or three-light square-headed windows with chamfered mullions, and includes two dormers. The rear gable end of this block has a single first floor lancet window. The inner wall contains only an inserted 20th-century door with side light.

The stair block features a first floor four-light window, each light having a cusped cinquefoil head. The rear gable end of the kitchen includes a first floor Tudor-arched window with uncusped tracery and two small square-headed single-light ground floor windows. The outer face of the kitchen has one ground floor and two first floor two-light windows, including a dormer alongside the stack. A secondary Tudor-arched doorway is located behind a small porch in the angle between the kitchen and main block.

The original interior is largely intact. It includes panelled doors in Tudor arches, geometric chimney pieces, and a 17th-century style open-well staircase.

This is a well-preserved Tudor Gothic style house with no later additions and little alteration of detail. According to the owner, it was built in 1846 by the Reverend W T A Radford at a cost of £1,600. Radford was squire, parson, patron, and incumbent. He was also a founder member of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society and for half a century one of the leading members of the High Church movement in the Diocese of Exeter.