The Old Rectory Including Stable Block

The Old Rectory including Stable Block

Former rectory, disused at the time of survey in 1986. Built in 1862 for Reverend G.S. Cruwys at a cost of £3,000, as recorded in White's Devonshire (1878-9). The building is constructed of snecked local stone with some freestone dressings, featuring a 2-span slate roof gabled at the ends with two gables to the front. Stone stacks with grouped ashlar shafts rise prominently. Some cob is visible in the stable block. The design adopts a Tudor style with ambitious architectural details, though somewhat old-fashioned for its 1862 date.

The main range faces south, with a double-depth plan arranged 2 rooms wide with a central entrance leading into a corridor containing the stair. The 4 principal rooms are heated from axial stacks with back-to-back fireplaces. A narrow service courtyard to the west is formed by a U-plan arrangement of service rooms adjoining the rear left (north-west) of the main range, extended to the front by a stable block and groom's room. Access to the service courtyard is through an archway between the stables and service rooms. A second, smaller enclosed courtyard lies at the rear of the main range, formed by a gabled block to the north and a miniature baronial battlemented wall to the north-east.

The building is 2 storeys. The front elevation is asymmetrical with 3 bays, gabled left and right. A shallow central battlemented porch features a central gable and a moulded stone Tudor arched doorway between buttresses with set-offs. The panelled front door is surmounted by a Tudor arched fanlight with intersecting glazing bars. To the left, the front elevation breaks slightly forward with a 2-storey battlemented canted bay containing transomed mullioned timber windows to the first and ground floors, with a frieze of blind stone tracery between them; a 2-light casement window rises to the attic storey in the gable. To the right of the front door are 3-light transomed mullioned timber windows, with a similar 2-light window above the porch, retaining some stained glass quarries.

The east elevation, visible from the drive, is equally important. It displays a shallow 2-storey battlemented bay lighting the ground and first-floor front rooms with 4-light transomed mullioned windows featuring king mullions and a frieze of blind tracery between storeys; a 2-light window with square leaded panes rises to the attic storey in the gable. The rear rooms of the east elevation are lit by 2-light transomed mullioned windows. Adjoining the east elevation to the rear is a section of battlemented walling with a 2-centred moulded stone doorway giving access to the rear courtyard, with a rounded embattled machicolated corner turret featuring an ornamental arrow slit.

Interior features are very complete. Stone Tudor-style chimneypieces and contemporary joinery throughout include a stair with turned balusters and foliage-carved finials. The ground-floor front right room has a coved plaster cornice decorated with large buds and flowers in deep relief; the ground-floor front left has a plainer plaster cornice. Tudor details extend to the stable block, which features Tudor arches with pierced quatrefoils over the loose boxes. This is an unusually grand and complete example of a relatively small Tudor-style rectory.