Description

SX 98 NW EXMINSTER

2/56 Spurfield

II

Rectory, now residential home for handicapped people. 1887-9 by J L Pearson for
Revd.Stephen Willoughby Lawley; the contractors were Luscombe and Son.

Redbrick in English bond, some tile-hanging, and plastered and shorn timber-
framed gables. Steeply pitched gabled plain tile roof with plastered deeply coved
eaves. Tall brick axial and lateral stacks with thin shafts and corbelled
brick cornices.

Late Victorian 'Old English' - 'Queen Anne' style.

Plan: Irregular approximately square double-depth plan with a central entrance
and stair hall at the front and set back to the left a relatively small room
which may have been the study. To the right of the entrance hall a large drawing
room behind which is the third principal room, probably the dining room. At
the centre at the back the kitchen with service rooms to its left extending
into a single storey wing behind.

Exterior: 2 storeys and attic. Asymmetrical elevations. The south entrance
front has a projecting gabled centre, tile hung on the first floor with a large
plastered gable above and a round-arched doorway recessed to the left with stone
voissoirs and large shaped timber brackets under the tile hanging and a 3-light
window in a bay to the right; above there is a large 6-light window on the first
floor. Set back to the left a tall 2 storey and attic, one bay section with
a half-hipped roof, 4-light windows on each floor. To the right of the central
gabled bay a tall lateral stack with a set-off and a 2 storey tile-hung canted
bay window to its right.

The right hand east elevation has a wide 2-storey tile-hung canted bay to the
right with a large jettied timber-frame gable above on 2 pairs of shaped brackets;
and to the left a 4-light window on the ground and first floors with a large
dormer above with a broad tile-hung gable and deeply coved eaves.

The rear (north) elevation has a timber-framed gabled dormer at the centre to
the left of which is a massive lateral brick stack and to the right is a half
hipped roof over the attic window.

The left (west) elevation has an asymmetrical arrangement of small windows and
2 lateral stacks rising sheer from the top of the wall with a tile-hung gable
between; to the left, at the back of the house, the small single storey hipped
roof service wing.

All the original windows survive; these are mostly ovolo-moulded mullion-transom
windows, but only retaining their glazing bars in their top lights. The original
round-headed front door has cover strips and wrought iron hinges.

Interior: The entrance hall has a polished red stone chimney-piece with 2 pairs
of tapered pilasters and a cornice; and a large timber screen with debased Ionic
bulbous columns and carved spandrels; one of the columns is the newel of the
open-well staircase at the back of the hall. It has a balustrade with barleysugar
twist balusters. The doorframes to the principal rooms have pedimented overdoors
with volutes to their friezes. The front right hand drawing room has a C18
style marble chimneypiece.

Sources: Quiney A, John Loughborough Pearson (1979) page 252. Building News,
1887, 53599.

Listing NGR: SX9438787565

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26390072

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)