Description

CHIPPENHAM

ST9273SW ST MARY STREET 930-1/10/198 (East side) 25/04/50 No.54 The Old Vicarage and attached railings

GV II*

Vicarage, now a retirement home. Dated 1678 to north chimney-stack but with probable late medieval origins to south end, refronted early C18, partly restored c1929. Limestone ashlar, probably originally timber-framed; stone slate roof; ashlar stacks with square diagonally-set shafts to gable ends and plain stack to centre ridge. PLAN: 4-unit through-passage plan with late C17/early C18 and C19 rear wings. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys; 8-window range. Returned cornice and parapet; rusticated pilasters to quoins; lintel and sill bands; moulded architraves to early C18 6-over-6-pane sash windows with thick glazing bars and some old glass; prostyle Tuscan portico with entablature; cyma-moulded architrave to doorway with raised-and-fielded 6-panel door. After the refronting, the wall plates of the steep-pitched roof still exist behind the 2nd-floor windows to the right of the door. The floor level to the right can be seen in the top panes of the 1st-floor windows. An aerial view photograph shows a lead roof spanning the space between the original roof and the parapet. To rear, C17/early C18 pair of gabled attics with 3 and 4-light wooden-mullioned leaded windows (restored c1929); other rear windows to wings have moulded architraves to 6/6-pane sashes; C19 rear right wing has a splayed bay to the south end. The sloping site provides a semi-basement to the rear where C20 windows are inserted into former 2-light stone-mullioned ground-floor windows. INTERIOR: north end includes some late medieval timber-framing to rear and to gable end, and moulded ground floor beams. Raised-and-fielded panels to shutters to front windows. The former through-passage, now the hall, has an early C18 dado rail with raised-and-fielded panelling below and a dentilled cornice; late C19 polychromatic floor tiles. To the rear right is an early C18 open-well, open-string staircase with fretted ends and moulded, swept and wreathed handrail. The room to the right of the passage has a moulded axial beam and a large chimney-breast to an open fire with a cyma-moulded architrave. The room to the far right has full-height raised-and-fielded panelling and a blocked fireplace to the rear. The rear right wing has a C19 white marble fireplace and elaborate cornice. The room to the left of the passage, now a kitchen, has ogee-stopped chamfered beams to a panelled ceiling and a former open fire to the gable end. Below it is a barrel-vaulted cellar. The early C18 rear left wing has a fully-panelled room with a box cornice and fire to the left, to the ground floor. The 1st floor of the main block has a C19 passage along the rear wall with bolection moulding in early C18 style. The cornices do not coincide. Rooms to the front have a moulded axial beam, early C18 box cornices and full-height raised-and-fielded panelling. The room to the 1st floor of the left wing, which has thick glazing bars to 6/6-pane sash windows, is panelled below the dado rail with flush timber-framing above, implying that this room had tapestry or silk stretched across it. The 2nd floor has some C17 planked doors with fine wrought-iron hinges and some c1929 similar doors with elaborate hinges; one C17 oak door frame to the right is cyma-moulded, stopped above the base. Much of the collar-beam roof is exposed which has sloping trusses below the tenoned purlins and a ridge-in-notch. The attic of the 3-bay rear left wing of similar structure has a small C17 planked oak door with fine wrought-iron hinges and a wooden lock. Below the right end of the house, the semi-basement, in course of restoration, is barrel-vaulted. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: plain railings, attached to the sides of the door and the corners of the house, enclosing narrow forecourts, have cast-iron anthemion finials.

Listing NGR: ST9232873232

External Links

• Wikidata Q17544287

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Recommended Books

• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)