MSO10783 - The Old Vicarage, Winsford (Building)

Vicarage, now private dwelling. C16-C17 enlarged early-mid C19. Roughcast over rubble, asbestos slate roof hipped to C19 addition with soffit boards and paired brackets, roughcast stacks on external right gable end, centre left and left on C19 addition. L-plan, 2-cell of original dwelling lying north-south with C19 addition or re-building of south end extended west. East front: 2 storeys, 3:2 bays, irregular fenestration, left 3 bays project forward slightly 12 and 16-pane sashes, two 16-pane sashes to right, ground floor left flat roofed canted bay with 2 windows centre of 15-pane sash windows, similar on angled returns, right 12-pane window left and tripartite 16-pane sash window right of 6-panelled door, panelled reveals, pentice porch suspended by chains. Long left return with lower service wing to rear, canted bay ground floor and blind semicircualr headed niche first floor right flanked by sash windows. Interior not seen, said to contain moulded ceiling beams. [1] English Heritage Listed Building Number: 265565. First Listed on 06/04/1959. [2] L-plan. Stone, Render, roughcast and pebbledash walls. Hipped roof [3] The building was visited in March 2012 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. It received a BAR score of 5. [4] The Old Vicarage, now a private dwelling, has 16th-17th Century origins and was substantially enlarged in the early-mid 19th Century. Built of roughcast over rubble with asbestos slate roof, the present L-plan consists of the original building, which was probably two cell with crosspassage (there are said to be surviving moulded ceiling beams). The shouldered external stack set axially in the blind gable adjoining the highway is typical of the 17th Century. The new wing with hipped roof, overhanging eaves on paired brackets and with 12, 15 and 16-pane sash windows, including one tripartite to the right of the six-panelled entrance door, with panelled reveals are typical late Georgian or early Victorian features. [5] The building is shown in a similar plan form today as it is depicted on the Tithe Map. This records this building, and the stables across the street, under land parcel 440. The accompanying Apportionment states this is owned and occupied by the Reverend Bennett Michell and describes the parcel as "House and Garden etc". [6,7] The house was flooded to a depth of some 2.5 to 3 feet during the 1952 floods. The Rectory (MEM23615) was bought by the Diocese of Bath and Wells as the new Rectory when the Old Vicarage was sold in 1968.[8] The building was subject to assessment as part of a heritage statement for a planning application in 2016. The statement suggests the building originated as a small medieval house. A possibly late 16th Century timber roof is housed in the ground floor study, although it is suggested in the report that later support added to the structure makes it likely this was relocated within the house or introduced from another building (it has been claimed it was removed from the Priory at Barlynch Farm but there is no evidence supporting this). The property was subject to major reconstruction in the late 18th Century, when much of the house is thought to have been rebuilt and reconstructed and a large extension built on the south side, now including the kitchen, dining room and drawing rooms, with bedrooms above. The exterior of the property was formalised. In the Victorian period, a staircase and rear corridor was added at the back, improving access to the what is now the kitchen and upstairs bedroom. It also appears that the building may have been rendered in the 19th Century, and later in this period a conservatory was added to the kitchen, with a glazed conservatory screen constructed across the front of the eastern façade as a windbreak. These survived until the 1930s. It is thought that central heating was added in the post-war period and the remaining fireplaces removed and blocked up at this time. The property was purchased by Lord and Lady Barrowclough in 1968 from the church. They conducted a major refurbishment of the services, reconfigured the bathrooms on the northern side of the house, rendered the outside, replaced the slate roof with artificial slate and made other alterations throughout the house. [9] A brief history of the rectory and vicarage can be found in [10]. At the Dissolution, when the Priory at Barlynch held the advowson of Winsford church, the rectory was valued at 9 pounds and 10 shillings. At this time, it was granted to the Earl of Hertford. [10] Winsford was designated as a conservation area in 2023. The new appraisal was produced as part of the adoption of the conservation area. [11]