Monument Type(s):

• HOUSE (Mid 18th century to Unknown - 1749 AD?)
• VICARAGE (Mid 18th century to Unknown - 1749 AD?)
• ARMY HEADQUARTERS (Second World War - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• RADIO TELEGRAPHY STATION (Second World War to 20th century (post-war) - 1939 AD to 1950 AD)

Summary

A rectory, now house, dated circa 1749, which is protected by Grade II* Listing.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA6657 - 1996 DBA and site visit to The Old Rectory, Whitchurch by SCCAS
• ESA6652 - 2010 landscape assessment of land at London Road, Whitchurch, Shropshire by Northamptonshire Archaeology
• ESA6650 - 2010 DBA and site visit of land off London Road, Whitchurch by Phoenix Consulting Archaeology
• ESA8727 - 2018 Heritage at Risk Survey by Historic England
• ESA8625 - 2014 Heritage at Risk Survey by Historic England
• ESA8621 - 2015 Heritage at Risk Survey by Historic England
• ESA8361 - 2016 Heritage at Risk Survey by Historic England
• ESA8362 - 2017 Heritage at Risk Survey by Historic England
• ESA9067 - 2019 Heritage at Risk Survey by Historic England

Description

Rectory, now house. Formerly dated 1749. Red brick with some grey sandstone ashlar dressings. Slate roof. Main block with service wing adjoining to south east. 2 storeys and attic over basement with 2-storey service wing. Plinth with moulded brick top, stone cornice band, and parapet with stone coping. Integral brick end stack to right and external brick end stack to left. 3 flat-roofed dormers with 2-light wooden casements. 5 bays; boxed glazing bar sashes with stone cills and gauged-brick heads (2 ground-floor sashes to left with bars removed to form 4 panes). Basement windows, blocked to left and with 2-light wooden casements to right. Central door with 6 raised and fielded panels, moulded stone architrave and painted stone Tuscan doorcase with pilasters supporting entablature and triangular pediment. 3 stone steps up to door. Left-hand gable-end: plinth. 2 bays; right-hand bay with first-floor fixed sash, ground-floor blind window and basement window. Full-height canted bay to left with moulded wooden eaves cornice and hipped slate roof; 3 glazing bar sashes to each floor, fixed to first floor. Rear: plinth and stone cornice band. 5 bays; boxed glazing bar sashes, some replaced with late C18 glazing bar sashes and mid-to late C20 small-paned metal casements. Set-back service wing adjoining to south-east. T-plan. 2 storeys. Plat bands (with raised top course), dentil brick eaves cornice (bricks on side), and parapeted gable ends, those to central wing with stone coping. Brick ridge stack off-centre to left, tall square brick ridge stack off-centre to right, and wing with pair of integral brick end stacks. Left-hand part with 2 first-floor boxed glazing bar sashes, 2 ground-floor C18 leaded wooden cross windows to left with wrought-iron catches (left-hand window partly obscured by later addition in angle) and flat brick arches, and C18 door to right with 6 raised and fielded panels, pegged frame with double-quirked beading, and shaped brackets supporting flat hood with 2 panelled soffit and moulded cornice. Right-hand part with 2 first-floor boxed glazing bar sashes, blocked ground-floor window to left, and sash to right, later cut down to form door (see straight joints). Central wing, with 2 gables to front. Probably late C18 (see straight joints). 2 first-floor boxed glazing bar sashes. Left-hand return front with blind first-floor window (painted in imitation of a sash) and ground-floor C20 three-light casement, and right-hand return front with first-floor boxed glazing bar sash (16-pane) and 2 ground-floor segmental-headed leaded wooden cross windows. Rear of service wing with plat band and dentil brick eaves7 or 8 bays with first-floor boxed glazing bar sashes, and ground floor with mid-C18 wooden cross windows to left and late C18 glazing bar sashes to right. Two-storey C19 addition in angle of main block and service wing. Interior of house: largely complete mid-Cl8 fixtures and fittings. Entrance hall with dado panelling, windows with moulded architraves and panelled shutters, and moulded plaster cornice. 3-flight rectangular-well oak staircase to right, with landings, open string with cut brackets, moulded nosings, column-on-vase balusters (each tread with central unfluted column on plain vase flanked by barleysugar columns on wreathed vases), and ramped moulded handrail, wreathed to fluted Doric columnular foot newel. Balustrade returns to landing. Ramped C18 dado with panelled dies. Dog-leg oak back staircase with winders, closed string, column-on-vase balusters, moulded handrail, and square foot newel post. Left-hand ground-floor room: moulded plaster cornice. Fireplace with marble slip, lugged architrave with egg and dart enrichment, frieze and dentil cornice. Back corridor with partly fluted plain panelling. The house stands, along with a former coach house (qv), in a moated site. The house is notable for its complete mid-C18 interior. <1>

A desk-based assessment was carried out in on land at London Road, Whitchurch, as part of baseline assessment for a planning application. A site visit was undertaken on 21st May 2010. By 1612 the former moated manor had become the Rectory House. In 1749 the rector obtained a faculty to demolish the existing Rectory and replace it with a new one. Formal gardens are associated with the Old Rectory on cartographic sources (PRN 07616), created as pleasure gardens in the mid 18th century inside the moated enclosure to the east, and a footbridge led to extensive gardens to the west of the moat. Today, there are few indications of this former garden arrangement. <3>

The rectory was sold in 1923 and requisitioned during World War II. The house was used as a ‘Y’ station, or wireless intelligence station and arrays of aerials were present in the fields to the north and east of the house. The station finally closed in 1950. <4>
Identified as site of Army signal Headquarters by the Defence of Britain Survey. <4a>

A brief history of the Old Rectory, focused on the development of its gardens, was written in 1996. In 1749, the rector obtained a faculty to demolish the existing rectory at Whitchurch and replace it with a new one. Before demolition the old complex was planned, and the Rectory house drawn. Together, these show that the Rectory was a long, low, building with a symetrical front façade and placed centrally in the moated area facing the main entrance across the moat. The Recotry erected as result of the 1749 facult lay on the east side of the moated area, clear of the site of the old building. A plan of Whitchurch in 1761 does show the new recotry complex, but at a very small scale. This shows the house, the stables immediately south-west of the house (PRN 19496) and parallel buildings further to the south-west in the farmyard. Following the appointment of Francis Henry Egerton in 1781 to the living at Whitchurch, large-scale improvements to the house were clearly considered, although further analysis would be needed to identify, which, if any, of the proposals were acted on. During the incumbency of C.M. Long, rector 1833-?1863, further additions and alterations to the Rectory house to designs by Charles Porden were proposed. Again, further analysis would be required to ascertain the degree of implementation. <5>

A brick-built house of two stories and a basement. It is 5 bays wide, has a long service range and appears to be all of one mid-C18 build. It is thought to have been the work of William Turner, a local man. In 1749 or shortly afterwards, the predecessor to the present building was demolished. This probably had medieval origins. Photographs of front and rear elevations.<6>

Sources

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