The Vicarage

The Vicarage

A one-and-a-half-storey, three-bay vicarage built in the High Victorian Gothic style, influenced by John Ruskin's architectural principles. The building is constructed in rubble stone with Bath stone and brick dressings, topped by a steep slate roof with two large brick chimney stacks—one at the right end and another set forward of the ridge to the left of centre.

The exterior displays characteristically colourful and varied materials. The walls are built in pinkish local squared rubble stone laid in irregular courses, with Bath stone used for windows and doors. The ground floor features alternating red brick and Bath stone relieving arches, while yellow brick corners and red brick sill bands provide accent. Distinctive red-and-yellow brick bands run at the level of the window head springings, with a final band under the eaves. These bands vary in thickness, becoming thinner on the upper floor. Gable verges are finished in nogged red brick. The slate roofs incorporate bands of blue and purple slates, while the chimney stacks are banded in yellow and red brick with chamfered angles and nogged red brick cornices.

The garden front features a full-height canted bay to the right, breaking the eaves line, crowned by a steep slated polygonal pointed roof with swept eaves. Steep stone gables with blind four-pointed star panels and flush verges edged in nogged brick frame the eaves-breaking centre and left windows, which are two-light openings. The canted bay contains 1-2-1-light windows. Ground floor windows include a 2-light opening to the left, a 3-light window to the centre, and 1-2-1-light windows to the canted bay, each with prominent segmental-pointed relieving arches above (except over the side lights of the canted bay). Beneath the relieving arches, small stones are set diagonally as infill. The end walls carry the four bands around and include an additional band in the apex. Nogged brick flush verges finish both ends. The left end wall features one first-floor casement. The right end chimney breast rises substantially from the first floor, its lower section stepped outward on five roll-moulded stone corbels with yellow brick quoins. Single-light windows occupy the ground floor on either side.

All windows are plate-glass sashes in Gothic surrounds. Upper-floor windows feature cusped-pointed lights, while those below have flat shouldered heads. All windows are chamfered without sills.

The rear elevation has a slightly projecting gable to the left with first-floor two-light windows (heads blind) and a ground-floor two-light window left of centre, with a door to the right. The first-floor window features a sill band beneath it, but no other bands continue upward. The door is cusped-pointed with red brick and Bath stone voussoirs. The adjacent window to the left has a relieving arch and diagonal stone infill matching the garden front pattern. A timber cross-window to the right has a simpler segmental-pointed bicolour head with yellow brick sides and flush stone sills. The lower two bands and the lower band of the upper floor continue around this section. A stair-lighting window with a head above a red brick band sits to the left, and a door between two windows occupies the ground floor to the right.

The interior contains an inner half-glazed door. A staircase to the right of the rear wall features short returns at foot and landing, with a closed string, moulded rail, and chamfered and stopped balusters topped with pointed heads and quatrefoil pierced sloping pieces between each baluster. The newels are chamfered with ball finials on tall necks. Panelling below the stairs displays trefoil decoration. Doors throughout are four-panel. The ground floor is divided into a drawing room occupying the canted bay, a dining room in the centre, and a kitchen to the right, with a china pantry opposite the service passage. Chimneypieces have been removed.