Rectory to the Roman Catholic Church of St Michael the Archangel and boundary wall

Rectory to the Roman Catholic Church of St Michael the Archangel

This rectory was built at the turn of the 19th century to designs of 1797. It stands as a Grade II listed building, adjoining the Roman Catholic Church of St Michael the Archangel on its west side.

The building is constructed of regularly coursed gritstone with rusticated quoins and ashlar dressings. The roof is of stone slate, with two symmetrical ridge stacks. Windows to the principal south and east elevations are two-over-two timber sashes with horns, set within flush stone surrounds.

The rectory is roughly square on plan, with a rear porch and outshot extending from its north-east corner. It rises to three bays over two storeys, beneath a hipped roof. The principal elevation faces south and features a broad ashlar plinth and quoins. The central doorway is set within a flush stone frame with keystone and imposts, topped by a semi-circular fanlight with radiating glazing bars above a 20th-century half-glazed door.

The ground level is lower on the east side, revealing a semi-basement with a six-light barred window at ground level. Above are two sash windows to the ground and first floor. The east side of the north elevation features a single-storey stone lean-to with a planked door to its west face and casements with glazing bars within flush stone surrounds to the north and east. Blank brickwork above suggests a gable formerly abutted the first floor. The north windows have fixed timber mullions and transoms with single opening lights; the central first-floor window has four lights while the ground and first floor windows of the west bay have six. All have stone lintels and sills. At the centre of the ground floor is a 20th-century glazed timber porch with a stone plinth. The west elevation adjoins the sacristy of the chapel and features a small six-light stair window to the first floor and a 20th-century inserted window to the ground floor.

The interior is laid out over two storeys with a cellar, on a double pile plan with rooms two deep and two wide. A staircase sits to the west side of a central hallway. The front door leads into the hallway, which features arched thresholds. On the west side, an office with a door to the sacristy contains an early 20th-century glazed brick fire surround with an arched fireplace opening. Other fire surrounds are modern replacements. The former kitchen retains a heavy stone hearth the length of the room, with three deeply recessed square niches, the central one boarded over. Windows to the ground floor rooms have panelled reveals and internal shutters. The staircase features a banister in two sections with simple turned balustrades and newel posts. Beneath the stairs is a panelled door to the cellar. Original doorways to the ground and first floor rooms feature six-panelled doors within deep, panelled surrounds with moulded architraves.

A boundary wall of irregularly coursed rubble stone with flat stone coping marks the perimeter to the grounds at the rear of the rectory and chapel.