The Old Rectory

The Old Rectory is a house, originally built as the rectory, dating from 1784 and designed by Joseph Rowe of Exeter. It is constructed of rendered stone rubble with a slate half-hipped roof and rendered stacks at the gable ends. The building follows a symmetrical plan with two principal rooms on the ground floor, an entrance hall, and a projecting stair tower at the rear providing access to a basement and upper floors. The ground level behind the house is at basement level. In the mid-19th century, a service range was added behind the original house, almost detached but linked by a short block at the base of the stair tower. 20th-century single-storey extensions have been added to either end of the main house, one replacing a conservatory and the other a new kitchen raised above the basement level.

The front elevation is symmetrical and three bays wide, with 12-pane sashes on the first floor and tripartite sashes (4:12:4 panes) on the ground floor, all original. The central doorway features a fine wooden doorcase with fluted pilasters, a fluted frieze with paterae, a dentilled cornice, panelled reveals, and a semi-circular fanlight with radiating glazing bars. The original six-panel door features glazed upper panels. Two segmented-headed dormers, likely from the late 18th or early 19th century, have three-light casements and slate-hung sides. C20 casements are present at both ends and at basement level at the rear.

Inside, much of the original joinery remains, including panelled doors and internal window shutters. The left-hand room has an egg-and-dart and small acanthus cornice, as well as a late 18th-century wooden chimney piece with a dentilled cornice. The right-hand room features an arched-head china cupboard on the rear wall and a plain moulded ceiling cornice; its fireplace was removed when the 20th-century addition was built. The entrance hall is a wide passage with an open-well, dog-leg staircase featuring stick balusters, a moulded string, and a moulded handrail ramped up to column newels. The staircase ascends to the attic and continues to the original kitchen in the basement.