Old Parsonage

Old Parsonage

Parsonage, now house. Originally built in the late 15th or early 16th century, possibly altered in the mid to late 16th century, and altered and probably enlarged in the early to mid 17th century. Further alterations probably date from the late 17th or early 18th century. The ground floor is uncoursed stone rubble and the first floor is rendered cob. The rear is rendered throughout. The roof is covered in 20th-century concrete tiles (formerly thatched), with gable ends to the left and a hip to the right. There is a stone lateral stack at the rear, a rendered stone end stack to the left, and a rendered brick end stack to the right.

The present plan consists of a hall with an external lateral stack to the rear, a through passage to the right, and a former parlour to the left with a small one-roomed wing at the rear of the right-hand end (now the kitchen). The lower right-hand service end has been demolished. The house faces south with ground sloping to the right.

The original house of around 1500 probably consisted of a hall, passage, and parlour, either open to the roof from end to end or with an unheated ceiled solar above the parlour. Remains of probable jointed cruck trusses and some reused smoke-blackened timbers in the roof date from this early phase. The solar above the parlour may be a later insertion, possibly of the mid-16th century, and projects into the open hall (evidenced by a moulded bressumer of a former internal jetty). If the solar was inserted, it was probably re-roofed and sealed off from the hall at the same time, with the hall remaining open. A stair turret in the left-hand rear corner of the parlour was probably added at this time. The integral end stack at the parlour end may have been added later, in the late 17th or early 18th century, or the parlour fireplace may have been later rebuilt. Service rooms probably formerly existed below the through passage but have since been demolished, though no evidence remains in the end wall. A 1679 terrier references "two Buttery Chambers" which were probably located at the lower end. An outshut with earthen floor recorded in the 1679 terrier probably refers to a separate building, now demolished. An external lateral stack at the rear of the hall was probably added in the early 17th century, and the chamber over the passage may have been enclosed at the same time. The 17th-century alterations included the rebuilding of the roof over the hall and passage, probably replacing an earlier smoke-blackened roof of around 1500. The first floor appears to have been inserted in the hall in the late 17th or early 18th century (a hall chamber is not mentioned in the 1679 terrier). The short wing at the rear of the parlour was probably added at the same time. The 1679 terrier refers to a "School House with Chamber over", and it is possible that the rear wing was either the former school room (perhaps reduced in the 18th century) or a 18th-century rebuilding of it. The hall was reduced in width at a probably late date by removal of the partition to a position underneath the moulded bressumer of the former jettied solar. A one-storey lean-to outshut was added to the right-hand end, probably in the 18th or 19th century.

The house presents some architectural problems. The internal jetty into the hall is unusual if the parlour end was floored from the outset, as this feature is typically associated with inserted floors. If the solar is not an insertion, it is possible that the roof above it dates from around 1500 rather than being a later 16th-century rebuilding. The use of raised and jointed crucks in the same building is not uncommon.

The building is two storeys with a one-storey outshut.

Exterior: The south front has three first-floor late 19th-century three-light wooden casements. The ground floor has a late 19th-century three-light wooden casement to the left with wrought-iron diamond-section bars inside, and a central late 19th or early 20th-century two-light wooden casement lighting the hall. To the right is a doorway with a 20th-century six-panelled door (the top four panels glazed). The right-hand part of the south front projects slightly, possibly resulting from later partial rebuilding. A tall later raking buttress stands between the centre and left-hand windows. The outshut to the right has a 19th or 20th-century two-light wooden casement. The stair turret in the left-hand gable end has a small 19th-century two-light wooden casement.

The large stack at the rear of the hall has chamfered offsets, a tall tapered shaft, weatherings, and a string course. A former bread oven to the right of the stack has been rebuilt, including part of the offset above. A small late 17th-century ground-floor window to the rear of the parlour has two lights with a central chamfered mullion and diamond-section stanchions. Blocked first-floor openings appear in the wall to the right of the rear stack, possibly indicating a former larger rear wing. Two ground-floor probably 18th-century small two-light wooden windows in the rear wall of the rear wing have diamond-section stanchions.

Interior: A fine 16th-century plank and muntin oak screen with roll-moulded muntins stands in the hall. It has a chamfered head beam with stepped run-out stops and two doorways, the left-hand one with an old boarded door with wrought-iron strap hinges, and the right-hand one blocked. Old graffiti on the screen includes the date 1666.

A large probably early 17th-century fireplace at the rear of the hall has ovolo-moulded granite jambs with a lintel with cambered top and a stone relieving arch above. The hall has a roughly-chamfered cross beam and a moulded (cut back) half beam along the left-hand wall, probably the former bressumer of the internal jetty (the solar at the upper end probably being an insertion).

The left-hand ground-floor room (parlour) has a 16th-century cross beam to the right, probably in line with the former partition between parlour and hall, chamfered on the left-hand side only. Large joists span between this beam and a further chamfered half beam against the left-hand wall. A probably late 17th-century fireplace to the left has splayed stone jambs and a brick flat arch. The ground-floor room in the rear wing (present kitchen) has reused timbers as ceiling joists.

An old winder stair is located in the stair turret to the left of the parlour.

Roof: Remains of around 1500 smoke-blackened roof are visible, including a truncated jointed cruck in the rear wall of the hall to the right of the stack (visible in the hall wall and resting on a wooden pad) and some reused blackened chamfered purlins in the left-hand bay of the roof over the hall.

A 17th-century two-bay hall roof has two trusses (the right-hand one over the passage screen) consisting of principal rafters pegged at the apices, halved lapped collars, and a ridge-piece. A short bay over the passage to the right has a hip principal.

A roof of circa 1500 or mid-16th century over the parlour end has two unblackened raised cruck trusses (the right-hand one incorporated in the partition between hall and parlour) with mortice and tenoned apices, mortice and tenoned cambered collars, pairs of threaded purlins, and a diagonally-set ridge-piece. The left-hand truss has a scotch at the foot.

A lath and plaster partition between the second and third bay from the left is unblackened on the parlour (left-hand) side but shows evidence of smoke blackening on the hall side.