Berrister House

Berrister House is an early 18th-century and early 19th-century rectory, later adapted as a house. It is constructed of squared coursed limestone with a Collyweston slate roof. Originally designed with a U-shaped plan, it is now a double-depth building, two storeys high with an attic. The main front has a five-window arrangement. The central entrance features a 19th-century part-glazed door with panelled reveals, a fanlight with glazing bars, and a moulded wooden surround. Sash windows with glazing bars are set beneath gauged stone heads. A moulded stone cornice tops the building, with a hipped roof punctuated by three hipped roof dormers, each containing a casement window. Brick and stone stacks rise from the ridge. The left-hand elevation displays similar sash windows with wooden lintels. The rear elevation includes two projecting wings with hipped roofs, connected by a 19th-century single-storey lean-to. Further sash windows are present, one of which is tripartite. Inside, there is an early 18th-century staircase with turned balusters, stone flagged floors, and remnants of a large open fireplace with a bressumer in a room to the right of the entrance. The building was a rectory from the 14th century, belonging to the College of Newark, Leicester. Following the Dissolution of the Monastery, it became lay property, and part of the grounds were subsequently granted for the construction of a new vicarage.