Description

SJ 54 SW
1/48

WHITCHURCH URBAN CP
CLAYPIT STREET (north west side)
The Old Rectory

(formerly listed under London Road)

1.5.51

GV
II*
Rectory, now house. Formerly dated 1749. Red brick with some grey sandstone ashlar dressings. Slate roof. Main block with service wing adjoining to south east.

Two storeys and attic over basement with two storey service wing. Plinth with moulded brick top, stone cornice band, and parapet with stone coping. Integral brick end stack to right and external brick end stack to left. Three flat-roofed dormers with two-light wooden casements. Five bays; boxed glazing bar sashes with stone cills and gauged-brick heads (two ground floor sashes to left with bars removed to form four panes). Basement windows, blocked to left and with two-light wooden casements to right. Central door with six raised and fielded panels, moulded stone architrave and painted stone Tuscan doorcase with pilasters supporting entablature and triangular pediment. Three stone steps up to door.

Left-hand gable-end: plinth. Two bays; right-hand bay with first floor fixed sash, ground-floor blind window and basement window. Full-height canted bay to left with moulded wooden eaves cornice and hipped slate roof; three glazing bar sashes to each floor, fixed to first floor.

Rear: plinth and stone cornice band. Five bays; boxed glazing-bar sashes, some replaced with late C18 glazing bar sashes and mid to late C20 small-paned metal casements. Set-back service wing adjoining to south east. T-plan. Two storeys. Plat bands (with raised top course), dentil brick eaves cornice (bricks on side), and parapeted gable ends, those to central wing with stone coping. Brick ridge stack off-centre to left, tall square brick ridge stack off-centre to right, and wing with pair of integral brick end stacks.

Left-hand part with two first-floor boxed glazing bar sashes, two ground floor C18 leaded wooden cross windows to left with wrought-iron catches (left-hand window partly obscured by later addition in angle) and flat brick arches, and C18 door to right with six raised and fielded panels, pegged frame with double-quirked beading, and shaped brackets supporting flat hood with two-panelled soffit and moulded cornice.

Right-hand part with two first floor boxed glazing bar sashes, blocked ground floor window to left, and sash to right, later cut down to form door (see straight joints). Central wing, with two gables to front. Probably late C18 (see straight joints). Two first floor boxed glazing bar sashes. Left-hand return front with blind first floor window (painted in imitation of a sash) and ground floor C20 three-light casement, and right-hand return front with first-floor boxed glazing bar sash (16-pane) and two ground floor segmental-headed leaded wooden cross windows.

Rear of service wing with plat band and dentil brick eaves cornice. Seven or eight bays with first floor boxed glazing bar sashes, and ground floor with mid C18 wooden cross windows to left and late C18 glazing bar sashes to right. Two storey C19 addition in angle of main block and service wing.

Interior of house: largely complete mid C18 fixtures and fittings. Entrance hall with dado panelling, windows with moulded architraves and panelled shutters, and moulded plaster cornice. Three-flight rectangular-well oak staircase to right, with landings, open string with cut brackets, moulded nosings, column-on-vase balusters (each tread with central unfluted column on plain vase flanked by barley sugar columns on wreathed vases), and ramped moulded handrail, wreathed to fluted Doric columnar foot newel. Balustrade returns to landing. Ramped C18 dado with panelled dies. Dog-leg oak back staircase with winders, closed string, column-on-vase balusters, moulded handrail, and square foot newel post.

Left-hand ground-floor room: moulded plaster cornice. Fireplace with marble slip, lugged architrave with egg and dart enrichment, frieze and dentil cornice. Back corridor with partly fluted plain panelling.

The house stands, along with a former coach house (q.v.), in a moated site. The house is notable for its complete mid C18 interior.

Listing NGR: SJ 54176 42043

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17540723

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments