The Old Rectory Bridford, England

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

BRIDFORD BRIDFORD SX 88 NW 2/49 The Old Rectory 11.11.52 GV II Former rectory. C15 or earlier origins, substantially remodelled in the early C19 and altered in the 1950s. Whitewashed rendered stone; tiled roof (formerly thatched) with sprocketed eaves, semi-conical at the left end, gabled at the right end; rear left lateral stack to main block enclosed by rear left wing, front right lateral stack (shaft dismantled), end stack to rear right wing. Plan: Overall U plan. The origins of the house are a probably C15 or earlier open hall of which only one end (the right end), survives with the remnants of the through passage. This was probably the hall. The house was thoroughly remodelled for the Reverend Carrington in the early C19 as an L plan arrangement, 2 heated rooms to the left, divided by an entrance into a stair hall, and a library wing at right angles to the left hand room. The lower end appears to have remained single-storey throughout, retaining its medieval roof but with a front lateral stack added. A rear right service wing is probably C18 in origin but heavily remodelled in the C19 and C20. In the 1950s the thatch was replaced with tile and the rear lateral stack of the centre room dismantled. Renovations exposed an important painted plank and muntin screen in the right end room. Exterior: 2 storeys to the left, the lower end single-storey under a lower roofline. Asymmetrical 2 window front, the 2 windows to the single-storey right end. The main block has an approximately central C19 porch with timber Tuscan columns and a 6-panel 2-leaf front door; front elevation blind to the left of the porch; half-glazed C20 door to putative former passage at right hand of main block. fenestration of C19 or C20 timber casements with glazing bars to the first floor, timber sashes with glazing bars to the ground floor. 2 C20 timber casements to the right end, one on either side of the truncated stack. The left return of the main block has a 2-storey canted bay window fenestrated with 4-pane timber sashes, similar windows to the library. Interior: The right end room has a notable painted medieval plank and muntin screen, sited about 2 metres above ground level: E. Clive Rouse considered it to be in situ. A doorway has been inserted in the right hand panel with steps up, but of the remaining 8 panels, 6 retain figure paintings, the figures holding lances with penons. Rouse suggested that the iconography is the Elizabethan Nine Worthies with parallels at Harrington Hall and Amersham, Bucks, making this "amongst the earliest sets of Worthies in the country". The putative through passage retains a crossbeam with mortises for a former screen. The rest of the house retains some good features from the early C19 remodelling: a stick baluster stair with a wreathed mahogany handrail; a decorated plaster ceiling frieze in the left hand room with egg and dart moulding and a fine first floor chamber above with a coved plaster ceiling with a decorated plaster frieze. Roof: The C15 smoke-blackened roof over the right end survives below a later roof structure. It has 2 face-pegged jointed cruck roof trusses with a square-set ridge supported on a saddle, sooted rafters also survive. The roof trusses over the higher end are mostly C19 but one earlier pegged truss may be C17. The Reverend Carrington, Rector of Bridford 1815-42, wrote "Parochiales Bridfordii" in MS, this includes an account of the Rectory as he found it. An important painted screen and part of an unusually early medieval roof in a remodelled house. E. Clive Rouse,"Bridford Rectory, Devon: Note on a painted screen or Panelling", typescript dated 1955 deposited in National Monument Record.

Listing NGR: SX8147186218