The Court

The Court is a detached house built in 1792 for Richard Ford, the local rector. Constructed of local lias stone rubble with a Welsh slate roof, it is designed in a distinctive Georgian Gothic style. The south front has three storeys and five bays. It features a battlemented parapet, from which a central gable was removed in the 19th century; 16-pane sash windows with Y-shaped tracery at the top, reduced to floor level on the ground floor, and standard 8-pane sash windows on the second floor, all set within plain openings with slightly segmental, voussoired arches. Iron dog guards protect the lower windows. A projecting two-bay porch with pointed arches, a battlemented parapet, corner pinnacles, and a shield of arms is centered within the bays, with plates for tie bars between them. An east elevation incorporates a single-light window from the 16th century, along with a single-storey, 19th-century angled bay, featuring a battlemented pediment and larger-pane sash windows with matching tracery. The north elevation, cut into the hillside and generally unseen, has irregular window placement and includes a large pointed arched window to the staircase. The interior exhibits a blend of Gothic and Regency detailing, suggesting a prolonged period of interior finishing. The rooms are two in depth, featuring Regency architraves; some doors have been replaced with 20th-century examples, and there are ornamental coved ceilings. A through hall is divided by a Gothic-style cross-screen, and at the rear is a good cantilevered stone staircase with a Gothic-style wrought iron balustrade. A kitchen wing was demolished in the 1950s and replaced by a small extension on the west gable. A rectory, first mentioned in 1524, was described as "very ruinous" by the late 18th century and almost entirely rebuilt by Richard Ford in 1792. The property was sold following the merger of the living in 1922.