Old Rectory

OLD RECTORY, REDMARLEY D'ABITOT, PLAYLEY GREEN

Former rectory, now a house. Built in the early 18th century and altered in the late 18th and early to mid 19th centuries. The front elevation is constructed in Flemish bond brickwork with white pointing, while the rear wing uses Flemish garden wall bond. The roof is tiled with bands of fish-scale tiles to the front. The building is 2½ storeys tall, comprising a five-window, 3-room front that is one room deep with narrow rooms behind chimneys at the rear, a 2-bay rear wing forming an 'L' shape, and a later brick block in the angle.

The entrance front sits above a brick plinth with a moulded stone top. The central section containing three windows breaks forward slightly. The half-glazed front door stands up 2 stone steps, with flush bottom panels. Above it is a semi-circular fanlight with radiating glazing bars, set within a timber surround with plain impost blocks and a dummy keystone. Panelled pilasters flank the doorway, with consoles supporting an open pediment. Two sash windows sit on each side with moulded brick sills and cambered heads. The sashes feature shaped dummy keystones to their frames, set within cambered, rubbed brick arches. These are positioned close to inner windows. On the right end of the later brick bay stands a tall 8-pane sash with a cambered brick arch and dentil eaves above a reused house plinth.

The first-floor windows mirror the ground-floor arrangement. The centre window is a 4-pane wide sash with a semi-circular head and thick glazing bars. Paired consoles beneath the moulded sill support brick pilasters with moulded bases and capitals on either side. A projecting rubbed brick arch spans above, featuring a brick keystone extended upward to a dentil course and pediment, which breaks forward for additional keystones. Dentil eaves with a 2-course top extend across the façade and to the verge of the central pediment. A Diocletian window sits at centre with a rubbed brick arch and flush brick keystone. An iron weathervane crowns the apex. The roof is hipped with a flat centre on the ridge. Lateral chimneys on each side of the rear rise from the wall separating the front from the narrow rear rooms.

The left return features an early 19th-century brick bow with no plinth. Three tall sash windows on the ground floor rise from near floor level with curved sashes and slightly cambered brick arches with stone keystones. Matching dummy windows appear on the first floor, with a 24-pane central sash. Dentil eaves and a flat roof run along this elevation, with a hipped dormer containing a 12-pane window with unequal sashes projecting from the main roof.

Internally, the entrance hall is positioned off-centre to the left. Throughout the house are six-panel fielded doors set in eared surrounds. The staircase features a moulded handrail swept up to turned newels, turned balusters with square knobs, cut strings, and fretwork ends to the treads. Fielded panelling fills the space below. Panelled shutters line the room on the left, and an original boarded door provides access to cellar stairs. Servants' stairs to the attics run through part of the space behind the right chimney. A panelled window seat and shutters frame the stair window on the front first floor, accompanied by a moulded plaster cornice.

The roof structure to the front block features a collar truss with a cruck-like brace rising from the floor beam against the wall, positioned adjacent to the principal rafter. The rear wing has interrupted tie beam trusses with collar and angled strut from the floor beam, along with one pair of purlins and a plank ridge. A cellar runs beneath the whole front block, with a brick vault at the right end only.

The brickwork was painted at some period, with the front elevation cleaned in the late 20th century. The front block was likely built against or to replace part of an earlier house, which in turn was replaced by the brick rear wing.