Dryden House And Attached Wall

Dryden House, originally known as The Old Rectory, is a rectory that has been converted into a house. It has origins dating back to the 14th century but primarily features elements from the 16th, 17th, and late 18th centuries. The building is constructed from squared coursed limestone and topped with a Collyweston slate roof. It has an L-shaped plan and consists of two storeys with an attic.

The main front has three bays, with a two-window range to the right that is rendered and features two-, three-, and four-light leaded casements at the ground floor, all under rendered heads with keyblocks. Above, there are two sash windows with glazing bars, also under similar heads. The central entrance is a part-glazed door set between the windows, framed by a rusticated rendered surround. To the left, there is a large polygonal stone bay, likely from the late 18th century, which includes three sash windows on the first floor with glazing bars and plain ashlar surrounds with keyblocks. The ground floor has 20th-century leaded casements with similar surrounds. The roof is gabled, with a polygonal hipped roof over the bay to the left, and features ashlar stacks at the ridge and end.

The garden front, located to the left of the main front, has a four-window range of irregularly spaced late 18th-century plain and tripartite sash windows, all with glazing bars, and a roof dormer to the right. The two bays to the left are likely from the late 18th century, and there are 20th-century extensions at the rear. An attached wall to the left of the garden front includes two reset datestones, one from 1570 and another from 1631.

Inside, the room to the right of the hall retains the remains of a large open fireplace with a bressumer, while the room to the left of the entrance features a late 18th or early 19th-century reset marble fireplace and some moulded spine beams. The building is noted for incorporating a 14th-century wall internally. Dryden House is historically significant as the birthplace of the poet John Dryden, who was born in 1631.