The Old Vicarage

The Old Vicarage is a house, originally built as a vicarage in 1765. It was altered around 1790 and further modified and extended in the late 19th century. It was designed by Robert Bower and Gertrude Burdett for the Curate of the Parish. The building is constructed of sandstone with ashlar dressings, with some areas rendered at the rear. It has pantile roofing, with slate to the rear, and rebuilt brick stacks on stone bases. The plan is a central stairhall with two rear wings and a later service extension.

The house has a two-storey, three-window front and a single-storey, one-window wing to the left. A front door, set within an architrave with a moulded cornice hood and blind quatrefoil frieze, is positioned centrally. Above the door is an oval date panel carved with the entwined initials “RB” and “GB” in low relief. The windows are 20th-century replacements with four panes, set in original openings with triple keyblock architraves, and stone sills. A moulded eaves cornice runs above a frieze of blind quatrefoils, returning at each end. The roof has coped gables and shaped kneelers, with end stacks. A small sash window and a stack are located at the left end of the wing.

Inside, an open-string, quarter-turn staircase rises through the house to the attics. The staircase features turned balusters on urn pedestals, a moulded handrail, wreathed at the foot, swept up to the first floor and ramped to the attics, and shaped cheekpieces. The ground floor entrance hall has a fretted cornice. The right front room contains an enriched stone chimneypiece with a cornice shelf on consoles, an alcove with shaped shelves beneath an elliptical arch on pilasters, and a moulded dado rail and cornice, along with window recesses of fielded panelling and shutters. On the first floor, a triple-keyblock, round-arched opening with imposts divides the landing. The front left room includes a plain chimney- piece with the original firegrate, an eared overmantel panel, flanking cupboards with six-panel doors, small wall cupboards with fielded panel doors and shaped shelves, a moulded cornice, and panelled window recesses. The front right room is reportedly covered over, but is said to contain similar panelling to that in the left front room. The attic’s rear left room has a chimneypiece with a moulded shelf and original firegrate. The roof includes four scissor-braced trusses with notched principals and tenoned purlins.