Old Parsonage

ST 01 SE UFFCULME 4/137 Old Parsonage (formerly listed 5.4.66 as Parsonage Farmhouse) - II Detached house, formerly a farmhouse, and originally the parsonage (before the erection of the present vicarage in 1835, q.v.) Possibly late C15 or early C16, much altered and re-ordered in the C19 and mid C20. Main range of plastered rubble, the rear wing of roughcast cob; gable end slate roofs. Brick shafts to stacks. Later alterations have confused the original plan which was probably a 3- room, through-passage plan house, the higher end to the left of the passage; the hall is now heated at the higher end, but the fireplace here is 1930s and there may once have been a stack backing onto the passage, since demolished. The passage itself has been blocked by a re-used plank and muntin screen that was axially sited, forming a small room that encroaches upon the original hall space, and behind which are the present main stairs. Service end with former end (now axial stack); the service end has been extended (this part of the house was not inspected internally). To the rear of the service end is a substantial wing with 3 rooms. Axial stack to the wing. 2 storeys. Exterior. Front: regular 6-window range; including a 2 storeyed crenellated porch; all the 2 and 3-light casement windows have mid-C20 stone ovolo moulded mullions and surrounds, those to the ground floor with hood moulds. The depressed chamfered arch to the porch is largely renewed. A single-storeyed front wing, entirely C20, has 2 similar 2-light windows with hood moulds. The rear wing has 3 first floor 2-light casement windows with timber ovolo moulded mullions and surrounds, and these could be C17 (at least in part). Large conservatory to rear of hall and inner room. Interior. (Ground floor rooms only were inspected) : remains of quite a grand interior. Hall and inner room both have ceilings with intersecting beams with composite cavetto and roll mouldings, forming 4 ceiling squares. Re-used plank and muntin screen, chamfered and mitred (see above). Service end with chamfered cross ceiling beam, the stone chimneypiece with lugged surround and egg and dart decoration. It is understood that the roof was originally of jointed cruck construction. Rear wing: 3 rooms, the 2 furthest rooms divided by a plank and muntin screen with evidence of an arched doorway lintel; each room with deeply chamfered ceiling cross beam with step stops. The first room of the wing with a deep rear fireplace with stone jambs and chamfered timber lintel. Although substantially altered, first in the C17 (if the ovolo moulded windows follow genuine precedents) then more radically in more recent times, Old Parsonage remains a good example of a pre-Reformation incumbents' residence.

Listing NGR: ST0750312524