The Old Rectory

The Old Rectory is a two-storey house with a complex and organic development, displaying elements from the 18th and 19th centuries. It has predominantly rendered elevations and slate roofs, with chimneys rebuilt in yellow brick, some of which are modern. The building follows an irregular 'L' shaped plan, incorporating a cobbled courtyard on the north-east corner.

The earliest phase of the building is the north wing, which now has the character of a 19th-century cottage. The courtyard elevation on the east side features a central doorway with a six-panelled door and a gabled porch with decorative bargeboards. A variety of window styles are present, largely 19th-century casements, with a horizontally sliding sash window on the first floor. A matching porch on the right-hand end provides access to the kitchen. Axial brick chimneys are positioned slightly to the right and side, with a gable stack on the north end.

The south range has a roughcast elevation that steps up to the left-hand end, incorporating a six-panelled door leading to service rooms. The selection of windows includes 19th-century casements and a sash window with an early 19th-century two-light timber mullioned and barred window with sunk spandrels on the ground floor’s far left end. A chimney is located at the junction of the north and south ranges, with a further axial stack rising from the gable, stepping up from the lower range to a tall brick stack rising from the north eaves. The east gable of the south range has three 19th-century casements.

The front elevation displays an early 19th-century square block with a shallow-pitched roof and wide eaves. It features four 19th-century hornless sashes, symmetrically aligned, with two-pane lower sashes following the removal of glazing bars. The elevation steps down to the west with a hipped roof, a timber doorcase, a six-panelled door supported by consoles with a flat hood and blind fanlight, and flanking pilasters. Above is a twelve-pane hornless sash. The elevation returns, revealing the south side of the south courtyard range, now featuring a modern glazed lean-to, and a small first-floor, multi-paned casement at the far left (west) end. A large capped gable stack is positioned at the west end, adjacent to a projecting two-storey gabled outshut.

The roadside (west) elevation has a three-light, early 19th-century mullioned window in the centre of the gable, beneath a capped stack, with three small stair lights above, one of which has been enlarged. The west elevation of the north range displays a two-storey, late 19th-century splayed bay with large-paned, horned sashes and small 19th-century casements at the north end.

The front (south) early 19th-century block retains its contemporary interior features, including a simple staircase with stick balusters and a scrolled mahogany handrail, six-panelled doors, and early and mid-19th-century fire surrounds. The dining room’s fire surround is late 18th-century, in a Neo-classical style, presumed to have been imported. The service rooms of the southeastern courtyard range retain a strongly early 19th-century character, while the courtyard ranges retain part of a 16th-century roof structure with plain chamfered jointed cruck trusses exposed in the first-floor rooms. A spiral stone stair remains in the north range, with a simple 17th-century boarded door on a pintle hinge in the attic.