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© Dr Neil Bentham

IoE Number: 33992
Location: THE RECTORY, OLD HILL (west side)
  WINFORD, NORTH SOMERSET, SOMERSET
Photographer: Dr Neil Bentham
Date Photographed: 21 April 2005
Date listed: 13 October 1952
Date of last amendment: 10 March 1992
Grade II*

The entry for the following:- ST 56 SW WINFORD OLD HILL (west side) 6/125 Beech Court (formerly listed as The Rectory) GV 13.10.52 II shall be amended to read: ST 56 SW WINFORD OLD HILL (west side) 6/125 The Parsonage GV 13.10.52 II* Rectory, now house. c1700 (rainwater head to W elevation dated 1716). Random rubble to rear service wing with dressed stone quoins, stone copings, gabled pantile roof and 1980s stone end stack. Front block with coursed rubble, ashlar facade and dressings, hipped early C19 slate roof and stone stacks. Double-depth plan with vestibule to large rear stair hall; rear right service wing makes L plan. 2 storeys and attic; symmetrical 5-window east front in classical (Provincial Baroque) style. Central bay is slightly advanced and defined by rusticated pilasters. Similar pilasters to each end. Moulded first- floor string course and cornice beneath parapet. Central doorway with bolection-moulded surround and very fine shell hood on richly-carved brackets. Original 8-panel door with 2 glazed lights and rectangular fanlight. Panelled parapet with moulded coping. 3 dormers; 2 gabled, one segmental-headed with 2-light small-pane C20 casements. All windows are 12-pane early C19 six/six-pane sashes. Similar windows to 2-window left (E) return, with similar parapet cornice, also to 3- window right (W) return with thick glazing bars to C20 9/9-pane first- floor sashes above lean-to with keyed arch to doorway and 3-light cyma-moulded mullioned and transomed cross windows with turnbuckle to opening casement. Rear elevation has similar 2-light cross windows and C20 horned 6/6-pane sash in similar restored architrave above chamfered doorway with scroll-carved brackets to flat hood. 2-storey rear wing: left-side (E) return has 3-light chamfered stone-mullioned ground-floor window with leaded casements and original turnbuckles; right return has similar 2-light cross window to ground floor and C19 3/6-pane sash and centre-hung 16-pane casement to first floor. Interior: original moulded cornices throughout. Original bolection- moulded panelled doors and plain 2-panel doors; otherwise early C19 architraves and panelled doors and shutters. Front left room has early C19 reeded architraves with roundels and restored dado panelling. Front right room has late C17 bolection-moulded architrave to fireplace. Similar fireplace to rear right room which has late C19/early C20 strapwork ceiling and C18 china cupboard and dado. Stop- chamfered beam in rear kitchen. Rear left room has C18 china cupboards in recesses with bolection-moulded panelled lower doors. Entrance vestible passes into rear stair hall via lobby with groined plaster vault with bay leaf swags anf foliate 'branches'. Very fine open-well staircase with dog gates, ramped handrail, turned balusters to open string, turned pendentives and gadroomed finials. Stair rises to attic storey, which has gallery to front: this has cornicing with beading to springers beneath plaster vaulted ceiling; barrel-vaulted to end bays and groin-vaulted with ribs and pendentives to 3 central bays. Butt-purlin roof trusses. History: the 1716 rainwater head indicates that the rectory was rebuilt for Peter Blanchard (of a local gentry family) who became rector in 1714. There are no straight joints etc, suggesting that the rear wing is of the same date as the front. N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: N Somerset and Bristol, 1958, p 340; A J H Hobbs, History of the Parish of Winford, 1954, pp 11-12. ------------------------------------ WINFORD CP OLD HILL (west side) ST 56 SW 6/125 Beech Court (formerly listed as The Rectory) 13.10.52 II GV Former Rectory, now detached house. Probable C17 core range to rear with early C18 block to road. Random rubble to C17 range with dressed stone quoins, stone copings and pantile roof. C18 block with rubble to side walls and ashlar to east front with slate roof. 2 storeys and attic, 5-window east front. All windows are 12-pane sashes in bolection-moulded surrounds. 3 dormers; 2 gabled, 1 segmental-headed with 2-light small pane C20 casements. Central bay is slightly advanced and defined by rusticated pilasters. Similar pilasters to each end. Moulded first floor string course and eaves course. Central doorway with bolection-moulded surround and shell hood on richly carved brackets. 8-panel door with 2 glazed lights and rectangular fanlight. Panelled parapet with moulded coping. Hipped roof with central stone stack. (N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, 1958).