The Old Deanery

The Old Deanery is a large house dating to the mid-17th century, significantly altered in 1799 and the early or mid-19th century. Constructed of limestone ashlar with a hipped stone slate roof and tall brown brick stacks, the main front is three bays wide, flanked by two gabled wings with chamfered coping on cut stone kneelers. It has mullion and transom windows with chamfered mullions and embrasures, and the wings feature two-storey canted bay windows with strings and parapets. The central doorway has a four-centred arch and a two-light fanlight, topped with a hood mould bearing lozenge-shaped label stops. A small central gabled dormer displays an achievement of royal arms and an inscription reading "RDW Decanus 1799".

Originally, the house was in an H-shape, with projecting wings to the rear. However, in 1799 a three-bay range was constructed in the centre, slightly projecting forward. The sloping ground creates a semi-basement to this front, with stone steps leading to a balcony on the ground floor, which is fitted with an ornamental cast iron balustrade. The rear includes cased sashes with glazing bars, a central door with French windows, and a fanlight with Gothic glazing bars.

The interior retains significant historical features. A particularly fine oak staircase occupies the east wing, exhibiting a closed string, moulded tail, vase-shaped balusters, and ball finials on the newels. Ground floor ceilings throughout the original section feature 17th-century moulded plaster cornices, including cornices to the joists, with the exception of two rooms in the 1799 range and the hall, which has dentilled and modillioned cornices. The hall also includes a wooden fireplace with scrolled consoles, with possible related wainscotting featuring four-centred arched doors to the staircase. The staircase ceiling is 17th century, with a moulded roundel at its center and a frieze of stylized leaves. On the first floor, the rooms in the east wing retain original 17th-century plaster cornices, although one has a circa-1799 chimneypiece. A large room corresponding to the hall below has been divided by partitions, but its moulded plaster ceiling remains. The west wing contains three rooms (with slightly altered partitions), featuring richer moulded cornices than those in the east wing, with the south room having a moulded roundel in the center. One north room has an 18th-century diagonally placed fireplace, and the south room features some 17th-century panelling to dado level.