The Vicarage Including Outbuildings To North And West And Boundary Walls

THE VICARAGE INCLUDING OUTBUILDINGS TO NORTH AND WEST AND BOUNDARY WALLS

This is a house, formerly a vicarage, dated 1750 and refurbished in the mid to late 19th century. It is constructed of plastered stone rubble with stone rubble chimney stacks topped with 19th-century brick, and has a slate roof.

The building follows a double-depth plan-house arrangement facing south-east. The main front block contains a 2-room plan with principal rooms on either side of a central entrance hall that houses the main stairs. Each principal room has a gable-end stack. Service rooms occupy the rear, set under parallel roofs at right angles to the main block, creating a double-gabled rear elevation. The left gable-end includes a chimney shaft, indicating this was probably the kitchen. The house is 2 storeys tall.

The exterior of the main block presents a symmetrical 3-window front arranged around a central doorway. This doorway contains mid-19th-century part-glazed double doors with margin panes, flanked by contemporary French windows with glazing bars and margin panes. The first floor windows are probably earlier in date: a central 16-pane sash window flanked by 20-pane sashes. The eaves are carried on a series of shaped brackets, and the roof is gable-ended. The left chimney shaft includes a datestone inscribed 1750. The rear elevation has 19th-century casements with glazing bars. A 19th-century verandah runs across the front, now fitted with a 20th-century corrugated plastic roof supported on cast iron trellis posts and a polychrome tile floor. This verandah extends across the front of the left outbuilding as far as the doorway through the boundary wall from the lane.

The interior was not available for inspection at survey, but sufficient was observed to establish that it contains more 18th-century joinery and detail than the exterior suggests. The stair rises round an open well with an open string, shaped stair brackets, and turned balusters with flat blocks. Ornamental plasterwork in 18th-century style is present, though it is unclear whether original.

To the left of the front is an ancillary outbuilding with a 19th-century doorway containing a part-glazed door onto the verandah. This building now has 20th-century garage doors opening onto the lane towards the church. Behind this lies a service courtyard, the rear block of which contains a second garage with an elliptical arch doorway of circa 1930 opening onto the lane. Between the garages is a segmental-headed arch doorway from the lane to the service courtyard.

The property is enclosed by a tall stone rubble wall. Alongside the front of the house, from the lane to the verandah, is a segmental arched doorway of 18th-century brick, now containing a 19th-century panelled door. The wall along the lane, returning along Fore Street, has plain coping. Along the rear of the property the wall has slate coping and at the far north-eastern end includes a carriageway under a segmental arch.

The house, outbuildings, and boundary walls form an attractive group in the vicinity of Holcombe Court, the Priest House, and the Church of All Saints. The vicarage was built in an old walled garden of Holcombe Court following the death of the Reverend Robert Bluett in 1749; he had previously lived at Holcombe Court and allowed the Priest House to fall into disrepair.