Description

TL 3528 ASPENDEN THE STREET
(south side)

8/10 The Old Rectory
(formerly listed as
19.10.51 The Rectory)

GV II

Rectory, now a private house. Late C15 or early C16 Wealden
house, late C16 inserted floor with jetty linking wings, W end
chimney and former central chimney in hall. Early C17 E-end
chimney and service extension beyond. Small 2-storeys gabled
tower added on S in late C17, possibly a small stair turret
originally. Renovated c1870 (VCH (1914) 17) with 2 storeys
gabled larder wing on N side of kitchen, rear lateral chimney to
hall, and new windows at rear. Timber frame plastered with fan
pargetting and 2 roses in relief on rear turret. Painted brick
walls to lower E extension. Plastered brick N larder extension.
Steep old red tile roofs. Red brick chimneys. A fine 2-storeys
3-cells former open-hall house, with storeyed ends jettied to
the front, under a continuous gabled roof, spere-truss and
clasped purlin hall roof. Subsequent alterations in C16 involved
the addition of a heavily moulded beamed floor in the hall
extending to support a jettied front on the N side linking the
older jetties of the wings into a continuous front jetty on
curved knee-braces. Also an external W gable fireplace to the
parlour with a double-trefoil recess in the brickwork over the
lintel. The E service bay beyond the cross-passage was converted
to a kitchen in the early C17 and a one and a half storeys, 2-
cells, service wing built extending to E, later clad in brickwork
on S and E. Jettied N front has 3 windows on each floor and
broad battened door in C18 moulded surround under small-paned
fanlight between heavy original brackets marking the screens
passage. 3-light mullioned leaded casements, in shallow
projecting rectangular bays on ground floor. W part windows
renewed in wood. Lower service wing set back at E and obscured
by tiled and plastered gabled larder wing. Long 4-light casement
to service wing. Interior has exposed timbers, chamfered cross-
beam and upper part of spere-truss with curved brace cut with
mortice for rail for cove up to wall plate and profile of cove
cut in the side of the brace. Doorway at 1st floor on SW for
former garderobe. Elaborate roll-mouldings to axial and cross-
beams of inserted floor in hall. Clasped-purlin roofs to wings.
In 1709 terrier described as of 'timber, tiled with 3 rooms, of a
floor above and below, garratts over 2 parts, kitchen laid with
paving stones, rest boarded. Cellar. Small house adjoining E
end ... brick built one side, timber the other, thatched'. Of
exceptional interest as a purpose built rectory in the form of a
late medieval Wealden house with C16 and C17 additions. (RCHM
(1911) 41: VCH (1914) 17: RCHM Typescript).

Listing NGR: TL3544228200

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26468486

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)