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

• Wikidata Q26455515

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Recommended Books

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)