Berse Vicarage with Flanking Walls to Garden

Cadw's description

Location

Set back from Berse Road down a drive opposite Berse Drelincourt Church.

History

The vicarage formed the centre-piece of a charitable foundation comprising school and orphanage at Berse, originally endowed by Dean Drelincourt of Armagh in 1716, and subsequently by his widow, Mary Drelincourt, and their daughter, Lady Primerose, in 1747. It seems likely that the house was built by the Drelincourts, originally for their own use, so preceding the endowment by a few years. Following the establishment of the orphanage, the house was flanked by single storeyed ranges which were the school house and the orphanage, the vicarage itself housing the curate of Berse church. It served as a vicarage until 1965, and is now a private house.

Exterior

Brick with stone dressings; lined-out render to rear (W) elevation. Slate roofs forming 2 parallel gables, each with panelled brick stack. 2 storeys with basement and attic. Entrance front (E) is a 3-window range, with slightly advanced central bay housing entrance; quoins stress central bay and outer angles. Parapet above moulded string course with raised panels articulating the bays of the facade. Doorway up curved flight of steps with panelled stone pier and moulded copings to parapet. Pedimented doorcase of moulded and tooled stonework, and partly glazed 4-panelled door. Windows of principal storeys are 12-pane sashes (probably of C19 date: wood mullioned and transomed windows survived in the rear elevation until the later C19). Ground floor windows in stone Gibbs surrounds, with continuous sill band and panelled aprons with mutules. Renewed leaded casement windows to basement and attic. W elevation is similarly arranged with advanced central bay housing entrance (French doors in Gibbs surround) up curving flight of steps, and architraves with stressed keystones to 12-pane sash windows. 2-bay extension of c1920 to the N is 2-storeyed, with flat roof; window detail modelled on that of original house.

The house is flanked to each side by brick walls with stone copings running N-S: S of the house the wall returns to enclose the garden, terminating in a rusticated stone pier; formerly the garden was also enclosed to the E. The S wall incorporates various blocked openings, and appears to be the remains of the wall of the former school house range which comprised part of the orphanage.

Interior

Plan comprises central entrance hall flanked by principal rooms, with single room running the length of the house to the rear, and stairs between front and rear ranges. The entrance hall was probably created in the mid C19 by subdividing one of the principal rooms. Small NE room on each floor has corner fireplace, and retains moulded plaster cornice. Some original joinery survives, including panelled doors and the staircase which rises the full height of the house (with some modifications to its layout): turned balusters and square newels. Original kitchen was in the basement: a series of 3 shallow arches with stone voussoirs mark the site of its main fireplace and flanking recesses (one cut by a later inserted window).

Reason for designation

The house is of exceptional interest both as a well-preserved and richly detailed small house of early C18 date, and also historically as it formed part of a charitable foundation and small community with associated orphanage buildings and the church.