Description

DOWN ST MARY DOWN ST MARY SS 70 SW 2/174 The Old Rectory - GV II*

House, former rectory. 1846 according to owner and all features are consistent with that date. Architect, J Haywood. Snecked mudstone with rusticated ashlar quoins and Hatherleigh stone detail; stone stacks with ashlar chimney shafts; slate roof. 3-room main block faces south with entrance hall right (east) of centre. Outer rooms with slightly projecting end stacks and central room (left of entrance hall) with rear lateral stack. 2 storey front porch and slightly projecting side stack to first floor room. Rear blocks at right angles to right and left of centre. The longer (eastern) wing comprises 3 rooms with an axial and end stack. The left (western) wing includes the kitchen with large outer lateral stack. Stairs housed in its own block behind the entrance hall and between the rear wings. Its roof is parallel to main block. 2 storeys with cellar under right end of main block. Tudor Gothic style. Asymmetrical, yet balanced, front with 5 ground floor and 4 (including porch) first floor windows. Roughly-central 2-storeyed gabled porch and 2 ground floor windows to left and one to right with flanking single storey bay windows, the left-hand canted and right-hand rectangular. 3 first floor gabled dormers. All windows are stone-mullioned with Tudor-arched heads and contain iron-framed casements with glazing bars. Ground floor bay windows of rusticated ashlar projecting from each end. Left (west) end bay has canted sides, hipped roof, moulded cornice enriched with Tudor motifs in relief and carved lions head water spouts, and each face contains a 2-light window with cusped cinquefoil heads. Right (east) end bay projects square with embattled parapet and contains pail: of 2-light windows with uncusped tracery. All other windows on main front are similar 2-light windows with moulded hoods and lozenge labels and all except ground floor right have cusped tracery. Porch has 2-centred outer arch with richly-moulded surround, narrow square-headed lights each side, and 3-light first floor window. Porch interior is lined with patterns of coloured and shaped tiles and front doorway is a moulded arch containing panelled and part-glazed double doors. All roofs are gable-ended and all gables have shaped kneelers and soffit- moulded coping. Right end stack has divided octagonal chimney shafts and similar single shaft to porch stack. Others have been removed from left end and kitchen stacks but other rear stacks have plain chimney shafts. Rear windows are casements with diamond patterns of leaded glass. Right gable end includes cellar doorway under the stack. Outer face of right (east rear block has regular but assymetrical 4-window front of 1, 2 or 3 light square-headed windows with chamfered mullions and includes 2 dormers. Rear gable end has single first floor lancet. Inner wall has only inserted C20 door with side light. Stair block has first floor 4-light window, each light with cusped cinquefoil head. Rear gable end of kitchen includes first floor Tudor-arched window with uncusped tracery and 2 small square-headed single light ground floor windows. Outer face of kitchen has 1 ground floor and 2 first floor 2-light windows including dormer alongside stack. Secondary Tudor-arched doorway behind small porch in angle between kitchen and main block. Original interior is largely intact and includes panelled doors in Tudor arches, i03ori6thic chimney pieces and a C17 style open well stair. This is a well-preserved Tudor-Gothic style house with no later accretions and little detail altered. According to the owner it was built in 1846 by the Rev. W T A Radford at a cost of 16O0. Radford was squire, parson, patron and incumbent; also a founder member of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society and for half a century one of leading members of the High Church movement in the Diocese of Exeter. Source: Devon C19 Church Project.

Listing NGR: SS7437804255

External Links

• Wikidata Q17548417

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Recommended Books

• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  For the Record