Description

SE 7803-7903 EPWORTH RECTORY STREET
(north side)

20/86 The Old Rectory
(formerly listed as The
27.9.51 Rectory)

GV I

Rectory, now house and museum. 1709 with later minor alterations;
renovations of 1956-7. Red-brown brick, the south front in Flemish bond,
west front in English garden wall bond. Pantile roof. Double-depth plan:
3-room south front incorporating central entrance hall; 2-room west garden
front. 2 storeys with attic. South front: 7 bays, not quite regular, with
central bay breaking forward. Ovolo-moulded plinth. Chamfered brick
quoins. Entrance has C20 steps to wide 6-fielded-panel door and 4-pane
overlight in architrave with slim C19 carved consoles carrying cornice and
hood. C20 wooden plaque above, with painted motto and shield with arms in
relief beneath broken pediment on consoles. 12-pane sashes in flush wooden
architraves with restored ashlar sills and rubbed-brick flat arches, those
to 3 ground-floor bays restored. (3 ground-floor and 5 first-floor windows
were re-opened in 1950s restorations). 2-course brick first-floor band,
stepped-out above ground-floor windows. Deep moulded and modillioned wooden
eaves cornice incorporating gutter. Double-span roof, hipped to left, with
raised concrete-coped gable to right. Corniced ridge stack to right of
centre. Left return forms west front of 4 bays: similar details and windows
(2 to ground floor with restored arches), hipped roof and C20 gabled roof
dormer with 16-pane casement, corniced ridge stack to centre. Right return:
three 12-pane sashes to ground and first floors, 3 unequal 9-pane sashes to
attic, beneath segmental stretcher arches; twin gables with parapet between,
corniced stack to right. Rear has irregular fenestration with hung and
sliding sashes, C20 casements and French window, 4 gabled dormers with 16-
pane casements. Interior. Entrance hall has restored chamfered basket-
arched fireplace with tongue stops (the surrounding walls reputed to be sole
surviving section of previous rectory), C19 moulded plaster cornice.
Stairhall has fine original open-well closed-string staircase with wide
corniced handrail, moulded string, turned balusters and square newel posts,
one with a pendant drop, C19 moulded cornice to upper hall with acanthus
leaf centre-piece and foliate mouldings to angles. Chamfered spine beam
with tongue stops to ground floor rear right, boxed-in spine beam to front
right, moulded cornices to front and rear left rooms, the latter also with
beaded-panel cupboards with H-hinges. Reused section of timber framing for
spine beam to first-floor front right, chamfered spine beams to other rooms,
some with tongue stops. Plaster floors to attic. Collared rafter roof with
pegged butt purlins. Built in 1709 to replace the previous rectory that was
destroyed by fire earlier in the year, this house was the boyhood home of
John and Charles Wesley. The attic contains "Old Jeffreys Chamber", scene
of the famous hauntings recorded in John Wesley's Journal. Additions of
1883 by Francis Goddard of Lincoln were removed this century. Ceased being
rectory in 1954 when it was purchased by the World Methodist Council who
undertook restorations. Of considerable historic interest. W Read, History
of the Isle of Axholme, 1858, p 140; N Pevsner and J Harris, The Buildings
of England: Lincolnshire, 1978, p 233; D L Roberts, "Lincolnshire and
Humberside", in J Hadfield (ed), The Shell Book of English Villages, 1980,
p 365; photographs in NMR.

Listing NGR: SE7851503578

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Epworth Old Rectory at Wikipedia
• Epworth Old Rectory official website
• Wikidata IDs Q17537859 Q5384063

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

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)