The Old Rectory

The Old Rectory

This house is rendered and painted throughout, with Welsh slate roofs. It follows a double-depth central entrance plan with two parallel ranges. Two storeys are present throughout, though the floor and ceiling levels of the front and rear ranges differ significantly.

The south elevation, facing the entrance, is three windows wide. On the ground floor, paired windows sit beneath elliptical brick heads, with 4 over 4 pane sashes on either side of a timber mullion. A central gabled porch contains similar paired sashes. Smaller paired windows with 4 over 1 panes occupy the first floor under flat heads, with a single window positioned above the porch. The roof has a slight bell-cast and sprocket eaves, with rendered gable stacks. The gable ends are blind. The upper rear wall is built upon the top of the front wall of the rear range.

The north, or garden, elevation reveals the building's complex history. To the right is the 16th-century section, identifiable by its forward set position for a mural stair and considerable batter to the lower walls. This has a large circa 1900 window on the ground floor with 8 over 2 panes; on the first floor, a 4 over 1 pane window serves the stair, and a 6 over 6 pane sash sits within a large 20th-century gabled dormer. To the left is a single-storey 19th-century kitchen extension, and beyond that a 17th-century wing featuring a door and window below, with a window and 8 over 8 pane sash above—all 19th-century features. The roof pitches differ slightly, with a large hall stack and smaller stacks at either end.

The left gable contains circa 1900 sash windows to both floors. The right gable has a 2-light 16th-century window with stepped arched heads to the upper room, otherwise obscured by an attached 19th-century bakehouse and scullery wing. This window is the sole externally visible feature from the first building phase.

Interior

The house is entered through a wide stair-hall leading through the circa 1900 range to the early 17th-century cross-passage, which contains a circa 1900 stair. The rear range has a lower floor level. The circa 1550 house occupies the left side and is entered through a 4-centred arch with hollow chamfer and run-out stops—the original house entrance. Within the hall is an altered hearth and a narrower but otherwise similar door leading to a stone mural stair, positioned partly within the wall and partly in an outshut. A second door with reused mouldings, including a broach stop on the right jamb, forms a 2-centred arch into the 19th-century bakehouse and scullery wing. The mural stair roof displays traditional corbelled stone construction. The bakehouse retains its original oven.

To the right of the cross-passage lies a plain inner room containing an embrasured single-light window on the south wall. The mural stair ascends to the Great Chamber, now divided into corridor and bedroom. It retains a partly original roof truss with the apparent original purlin on the front wall and a replacement on the rear slope. A large semi-dormer window of the late 20th century is present, though the only original window remains in the gable with two stepped arched lights.

The remainder of the interior is plain, dating to the circa 1900 build, with some late 20th-century alterations.