Description

CLYST ST LAWRENCE ST 00 SW 2/47 The Old Rectory including kitchen - garden walls adjoining to north GV II*

House, former rectory. Early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, modernised with an extension of late C18 - early C19. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings, some rebuilt in local stone rubble, probably mostly brick in the extension; stone rubble and brick stacks with plastered brick chimneyshafts; slate roof, originally thatch to the older part. Plan and development: the house faces south and is built down a hillslope. It has a rambling plan. The principal rooms are housed in an L-plan block uphill at the left (west) end. The front block here contains 2 heated parlours and rear of the right room is the entrance hall containing the main staircase. This block was new built in the late C18 - early C19 at which time the old house was converted to service use. This service block connects only at the right rear corner of the main entrance hall. It has a 3-room-and-through-passage plan. Adjoining the late C18 - early C19 block is an unheated inner room. Next to it is the former hall, a large room with a projecting front lateral stack. A narrow lobby has been partitioned off at the upper end of the hall. At the right end is the service end room (now used as a kitchen) which has a projecting end stack. The present layout is essentially the result of the late C18 - early C19 refurbishment when the old house was converted to service functions (the former hall was the kitchen) and the new block was built. The old house has a long and complex structural history. The inner room end was floored from the start providing a chamber over a dairy or buttery. The hall (and probably the service end) was open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire. The hall fireplace was probably inserted in the mid - late C16 and the hall was floored over in the early C17. The service end was much rebuilt in the late C18 - early C19 at which time the front wall was brought out flush with the front of hall stack and the end wall and stack were rebuilt. The house is 2 storeys throughout with late C18 - early C19 lean-to outshots to rear of the service block/the old house. Exterior: the late C18 - early C19 block has mostly original windows. The south front has a symmetrical 2-window front of first floor 16-pane sashes and larger ground floor 15-pane sashes (the left one has been replaced by a C20 French window). The entrance front on the right end has a similar 2-window front but here the right bay contains the main doorway; an original 6-panel door with overlight and a timber doorcase with a moulded entablature including a dentil frieze on scrolled consoles. The roof has plain deep eaves and the roof is hipped both ends. The old house block has irregular front fenestration; the 3 ground floor windows are C20 casements with glazing bars and the 5 first floor windows are late C18 - early C19 casements containing rectangular panes of leaded glass (there are more in the end and rear walls). The passage front doorway is right of centre and it contains a late C18 - early C19 6-panel door behind a C20 gabled porch. The roof here is gable-ended. Interior: the late C18 - early C19 block is well preserved and contains a great deal of original joinery and other detail including a good open string geometric stair with stick balusters and mahogany handrail. In the old house the service end was largely rebuilt in the late C18 - early C19 and the roughly finished crossbeam and stone rubble fireplace with oak lintel (which has been raised in the C20) date from then. The lower end passage screen contains the remains of an oak large-framed partition which may be an early C16 low partition screen. The other partitions are plastered over. The full height crosswall at the upper end of the former hall is probably an early C16 oak-framed structure (the top part shows in the roofspace). The former hall has 2 early C17 chamfered and step-stopped axial beams. The inner room has a plain chamfered axial beam; it is probably early C16. The hall fireplace is blocked. The original roof survives over the hall and inner room. The partition between the hall and inner room chamber is a closed truss and the open truss over the hall is side-pegged jointed cruck with chamfered arch braces and originally had single sets of curving windbraces some of which still survive. There is a hip cruck in the upper end wall. The section over the inner room is clean whilst that over the hall is smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. The rest of the roof was replaced in the late C18 - early C19. Behind the house is the kitchen garden which is enclosed by a late C18 - early C19 tall brick wall laid in monk bond.

Listing NGR: ST0267100050

External Links

• Wikidata Q17546985

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