Old Rectory

Old Rectory

A 16th-century rectory of two storeys with attic storey. The walls are constructed of Lias limestone rubble with window and door dressings in Sutton stone. The building is gabled with a slated roof featuring three chimneys: one axial, one in the gable, and one rising from the wallplate on the north side. The south slope of the roof has two modern gabled dormers with a central rooflight, and three rooflights light the rear slope.

The south elevation displays two renewed two-light lancet windows of 12th-century form at first floor level, with a small square-headed stairlight at the east end. At ground floor level are a pair of four-centred, dressed stone doorways; the west doorway dates to the 16th century, whilst the east doorway appears to be a later insertion. Both doorways have plain chamfered jambs with hollow stops and fillet detail. At the east end stands a three-light mullioned window, each light with four-centred head and sunk spandrels beneath a hoodmould with square label stops. The west end contains a two-light, 14th-century style square-headed window with two trefoil-headed lights beneath a hoodmould.

The west gable features a projecting corbelled stack that has been capped at eaves level and subsequently replaced with a later flush stack. On the north side of the stack is a modern three-light, multi-paned casement at ground floor level beneath a modern hoodmould. Above this is a 19th-century arched window with modern multi-paned casement. Two later single-storey gabled wings with slated roofs are attached to the north elevation, fitted with assorted modern multi-paned fenestration. The single-storey range on the northwest side appears to incorporate a 19th-century lean-to. The west gable has a coped upstand with two two-light multi-paned casements with modern hoodmoulds and a small, high-set single-light slot window at attic level.

Interior: The ground floor of the main range comprises two units with a passageway to the rear of the main stack. The hall is entered from the outer room on the south side of the chimney stack. The hall ceiling retains three exposed beams with broad chamfers and hollow cut stops with fillet; later joists are plain. The fireplace at the west end of the hall has dressed stone jambs and a plain-chamfered timber lintel. On the north side of the fireplace is a cross-corner, four-centred doorway which formerly accessed the original stair, now removed. The west ground floor room has a smaller fireplace with timber lintel in the northwest corner and an oven on the west jamb, presumably inserted in the 18th century when this room was converted to a kitchen.

The first floor is accessed by a modern straight flight stair rising from within the modern additions to the north, crossing the position of the original stair. The first floor plan follows that of the ground floor. Over the hall is a chamber which may originally have been accessed from an external stair. The two-centred doorway on the east elevation now has a window inserted within the opening. The west chamber is entered from the east by the modern stair, which retains the original cross slab roof above it. The attic is reached by a spiral stair on the south side of the axial stack, which has been converted.