Old Rectory

Cadw's description

Location

150 m SE of Cosheston Church in Point Lane. The Old Rectory stands about 100 m to the S of the street and faces N.

History

The Rectory was extensively rebuilt in the C19. It retains the vaulted rooms of a medieval building at the rear. the vaulted part was evidently used as a kitchen before the rebuild. While the house was a rectory it served as a parish meeting hall. The house ceased to be a rectory in 1976 and is now in private ownership.

Exterior

A large C19 house with a forward wing at left and a porch in the angle. At the right is a neat oriel window. The older vaulted rooms are reached by internal stairs down from the main floor of the house. The vault is constructed in stone, of roughly segmental form rounded at the springing line. It is in one continuous run aligned E/W about 11 m in length and with a span of about 4.5 m. The space it covers is divided by thin walls into two unequal rooms with a short passage beside the smaller.

Interior

The larger vaulted room, to the W, functioned as a kitchen and there is a large hearth and chimney at the W end. The hearth has a brick arch. To the right of the hearth at high level is a circular wall-recess of shallow depth, probably for the wheel of a dog-turnspit. There are three rows of ceiling hooks. There are faint traces of old paint on the dividing wall which separates the main room from the E room. Two windows face the garden, one of which is a Yorkshire type of sash window with hand-made glass. The smaller room to the E and the passage between it and the external wall have cobbled floors. They have no external window.

Reason for designation

Listed as a C19 house incorporating late medieval vaulted rooms, the main one of which was adapted as a post-medieval kitchen with a large hearth.