Warkleigh House

Warkleigh House is a former rectory, now a private dwelling, built in 1844 by Abbott of Barnstaple. It is constructed of rendered stone rubble with ashlar dressings, and has a slate roof with shaped bargeboards. A decorative apex cross sits atop the entrance porch, and the rendered stacks feature triple shafts with moulded caps.

The building is arranged around a plan of three parallel ranges, with a rear range recessed slightly to the left (garden) side, extending well to the right as a service wing. The front ranges are two rooms wide, connected by a wide entrance passage that runs axially from the symmetrical three-bay entrance front, through the three ranges, to a single-storey polygonal rear porch. The principal rooms are located to the left of the passage, while two rooms flanking the principal staircase are on the right side, with service rooms in the projecting right-hand section of the rear range. The architectural style is Tudor Gothic.

The building is two storeys high with an attic storey and features a symmetrical three-bay entrance front and an asymmetrical garden front. All windows are intact, with transomed windows and diamond latticed glazing, and include French windows to the ground floor. The entrance front includes a two-light window above a French window on each side of a two-storey entrance porch. A plaque bearing the date "1844" is positioned above the four-centred arched doorway, which has a heavily moulded surround of double engaged colonettes, quatrefoil and mouchette traceried spandrels, and a cartouche over the inner doorway displaying the inscription "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" flanked by a Star of David. The porch has a single-light window on each floor on each side. The garden front has three gables, with the two right-hand gables forming a symmetrical composition of two two-light windows above French windows, and single-light attic windows in the gables. A recessed gabled bay to the left features a three-light window above French windows. A conservatory extends to the left, featuring a brick plinth, glazing above, and a canted bay with Adam-style fanlights to the doorway.

The interior retains 19th-century joinery throughout. The ceilings in the entrance hall and porch are plain vaulted. Warkleigh House was constructed in 1844 by William Thorold as a rectory, near an older Parsonage. His family remained in the house until his death in 1888. A new rectory (the present Old Rectory) was subsequently established nearby, leading to the unusual situation of three former parsonages being located within a short distance of each other in the small settlement of Warkleigh.