Old Parsonage

Old Parsonage is a detached house, originally the parsonage before the construction of the current vicarage in 1835. It likely dates to the late 15th or early 16th century, but has undergone significant alterations and re-ordering in the 19th and mid-20th centuries. The main range is built of plastered rubble, while the rear wing is of roughcast cob. Both have gable-end slate roofs, with brick chimney shafts. The original plan was probably a three-room, through-passage layout, with the higher end located to the left of the passage. The hall is now heated at the higher end, though the fireplace is 1930s and may have originally been accompanied by a demolished stack backing onto the passage. The passage has been blocked by a re-used plank and muntin screen, creating a small room that encroaches on the original hall space and concealing the main stairs. The service end features a former end stack, and has been extended. A substantial three-room wing is located to the rear of the service end. This wing has an axial stack.

The front elevation features a regular six-window range, including a two-storey crenellated porch. The windows are predominantly 2 and 3-light casements with mid-20th century stone ovolo moulded mullions and surrounds, the ground floor examples having hood moulds. The depressed chamfered arch to the porch has been largely renewed. A single-storey front wing, entirely 20th century, has two similar 2-light windows with hood moulds. The rear wing has three first-floor 2-light casement windows with timber ovolo moulded mullions and surrounds, which may be 17th century in origin. A large conservatory extends from the rear of the hall and an inner room.

The inspected ground floor rooms retain evidence of a grand interior. The hall and inner room have ceilings with intersecting beams, featuring composite cavetto and roll mouldings that create four ceiling squares. The re-used plank and muntin screen is chamfered and mitred. The service end displays a chamfered cross ceiling beam, with a stone chimneypiece featuring a lugged surround and egg and dart decoration. The rear wing consists of three rooms, divided by a plank and muntin screen; evidence suggests a past arched doorway lintel. Each room features a deeply chamfered ceiling cross beam with step stops. A fireplace with stone jambs and a chamfered timber lintel is present in the first room of the wing. Although substantially altered, first in the 17th century, if the ovolo-moulded windows are authentic, and then more radically in more recent times, Old Parsonage remains a good example of a pre-Reformation incumbents’ residence. It is understood that the roof was originally constructed with jointed cruck framing.