The Old Rectory Farmhouse

THE OLD RECTORY FARMHOUSE, BELSTONE

Farmhouse, formerly a rectory. The main part dates from the mid-19th century (said to be 1836) and was modernised in the early 20th century. The west wing is said to be 16th century but, if so, was largely rebuilt in the early 20th century. The building is constructed of plastered granite stone rubble with some brick dressings. The 19th-century block has granite stacks with plastered brick chimneyshafts, while the 16th-century style block features granite ashlar shafts with moulded granite coping. The roof is slate.

The house faces south. The main block is double-depth with two rooms front and back, served by two axial stacks between front and back rooms; the rear right room has a large rear projecting lateral stack. The front entrance hall is in the right room. A rear entrance leads into a single-storey outshot on the right end, which rises to two storeys at the front with a chamber over an open-fronted space, lower than the main block. To the left (west) is a lower block on the same axis as the main block and flush with the front. It has a two-room plan, each heated by a projecting rear lateral stack. The left end room is conceived as a medieval hall open to the roof. Behind it is an outshot; behind the passage and right room is a pent roof. No internal inspection was possible at the time of the survey. The house is two storeys except for the open hall, with attics in the main block.

The front elevation is irregular with an asymmetrical window arrangement of 19th and 20th-century windows. The leftmost 'hall' section has three windows with full-height openings: a central three-light window with timber mullion and transom flanked by narrow triangular-headed windows, all containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The adjacent two-window section to the right contains the passage front doorway, a granite elliptical-headed arch, and timber-mullioned windows with leaded glass; the first-floor windows are gabled half-dormers, and the window over the doorway is broken forward a short distance on a granite corbel course. The three-window section of the main block includes a two-storey projecting bay window, partly slate-hung, with timber-mullioned windows containing leaded glass. Further right are first-floor 12 and 16-pane sashes over a French window and part-glazed double doors in a slate-roofed porch. The right end outshot has a first-floor horned 12-pane double sash window over a two-bay arcade of segmental-headed granite ashlar arches. The roof has irregular levels, hipped to the right and half-hipped to the left.

The rear elevation features 19th and early 20th-century casements with glazing bars; those to the main block have plastered brick segmental arches over them. The passage rear doorway is a 20th-century Tudor arch with a contemporary studded plank door.

The previous listing descriptions mention the west wing containing cambered granite doorways, stop-chamfered beams, and two open fireplaces, considered to be 16th century; however, these may be 20th-century features in 16th-century style.

A rear courtyard is enclosed by a high granite rubble wall containing a tall round-headed archway from the drive.