Description

SE 81 NW LUDDINGTON AND HIGH STREET
HALDENBY (east side)
Luddington
4/23 The Old Vicarage,
including adjoining
garden wall and gateways

GV II

Vicarage house, now house, and adjoining garden walls and gateways. c1844.
Brick, stuccoed to main range. Welsh slate roof; concrete tiles to east
range of service wing. Garden walls of red brick with ashlar dressings and
gate piers. Italianate style. Double-depth main range has unusual plan
with large central circular hall, the west front with a small central
entrance lobby flanked by main stairhall and study to right, and a small
room and secondary staircase to left; the east garden front with the three
main reception rooms and central entrance. Double-depth service wing to
north with back staircase. Main range: 2 storeys, 3-bay, symmetrical east
and west fronts. Moulded plinth, chamfered rustication to ground floor with
alternating bands of wide and narrow blockwork, first-floor incised in
imitation of ashlar, moulded first-floor sill band and eaves cornice
throughout. West front: entrance has stucco doorcase with Corinthian
pilasters carrying plain entablature, renovated c1980, (with fillet missing)
with cornice and hood. 3 stone steps to half-glazed 2-fold panelled door in
wood surround and reveal. 12-pane ground-floor sashes with sills beneath
channelled flat arches. 12-pane first-floor sashes with recessed panelled
aprons, in architraves with ornate scrolled consoles carrying corniced
hoods. Moulded eaves cornice (formerly with deep moulded gutter) with
triglyphs and guttae. C20 plain wooden eaves board, deep eaves, hipped
roof. Pair of corniced roof stacks to rear. Lower 2-storey wing set back
to left has pairs of unequal 9-pane sashes to ground and first floors
beneath segmental arches, bracketed gutter; range set back to left has 12-
pane ground-floor sash flanked by dummy louvred shutters beneath segmental
arch, large axial ridge stack. Right return, of 2 bays, has similar windows
and details to west front. Rear of main range forms east garden front:
central bay breaks forward with steps to 2-fold glazed door in reveal
beneath channelled flat arch; tripartite ground-floor sashes with glazing
bars to side bays; 12-pane first-floor sashes with architraves and hoods
similar to entrance front. Lower 2-storey service wing has C20 casements
and sashes with glazing bars beneath segmental arches. Coped garden wall
attached to front left wing contains courtyard gateway flanked by square-
section piers stepped-out to moulded ashlar caps with low pyramidal tops.
More elaborate section along street frontage has C20 rebuilt piers to
courtyard entrance to left, and original gateway to right. Wall has moulded
ashlar plinth and stringcourse, recessed rectangular brick panels, and brick
corbels carry moulded ashlar ridged coping. C19 gateway has square-section
sandstone piers with moulded plinths, moulded panelled sides, moulded
cornice and carved coped tops bearing relief carvings of crowns and stags.
Plain C20 timber gate. Wall to right ramped up to large brick corner pier
with recessed panel, and top stepped-out to moulded cap with low pyramidal
top. Plain stone-coped walls adjoining at right angles to left and right
enclose north and south sides of garden. Interior. Impressive central
hall, open to first floor, has 6 doors and pair of half-domed niches to
ground floor, moulded cornice, plain frieze and panelled underside to
circular first-floor landing, with balustrade of slender reeded cast-iron
balusters with foliate bases and capitals carrying corniced mahogany
handrail; first-floor hall has similar doors, niches, dentilled cornice, and
panelled ceiling around central circular rooflight with radial glazing bars
and painted glass. Stairhall has open-well cantilevered wooden staircase
with ornate cast-iron newel post, balusters and wreathed handrail similar to
central hall balcony, moulded cornice and circular stair light with radial
glazing bars, and pilastered opening to upper hall. Moulded plaster
cornices to entrance lobby and to main ground and first-floor rooms. South-
east drawing room has original chimney-piece with panelled pilasters, roll-
moulded capitals and frieze with paterae. Plain stone chimney-pieces to
first-floor bedrooms. Moulded skirting, panelled window shutters, panelled
doors in architraves throughout. Secondary staircase has ramped grip
handrail, turned balusters and newel posts. Service wing has back staircase
with plain balusters, turned newel and moulded handrail, panelled doors,
moulded cornices and a pair of circular rooflights to first floor similar to
main range. A stylish building with some good details, probably by the same
architect/builder as Eastoft Hall (qv). Undulations in the east lawn show
clear traces of the former paths and flower-beds of a formal circular garden
similar in design to the central hall. Ceased being a vicarage in 1950s.

Listing NGR: SE8291516972

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26455515

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

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)