Description

PORTLAND

SY6873 OLD HILL, Fortuneswell
969-1/3/128 (East side)
Nos.1, 1A, AND 2
The Old Rectory, with boundary walls

II

Rectory to St. George Reforne, later hotel, now (1991) three
dwellings. C18 part includes symmetrical SE front; enlarged to
NE and remodelled in 1825. Rendered and scribed,
asbestos-cement slate roof. A long but compact hipped block
set to high retaining terrace on north side. Two storeys and
part basement; SE 3+1+2-windowed. Mainly 16-pane sashes, but
C20 steel casement to ground-floor bays 1 and 2, and 12-pane
sashes to ground floor, bays 5 and 6. Some early glass remains
in first-floor windows. Centred to left half is good panelled
door with fanlight in stone-cheeked porch to flat roof, then a
mid-height stair window, and at head of intrusive C20 stair
flight a C20 door. Two end and one gable stacks. NE front also
6-windowed: 16-pane sashes at bays 1/3/4/6, blind openings to
2 and 5; ground storey has various altered windows, including
arched light to bay 5 with plain overlight to C20 door. West
end has added one-storey unit behind stepped gable walls north
and south. Main block has moulded stone or rendered cornice to
ovolo finish, on which is set square-edged lead gutter as a
blocking course. Interior not inspected.
Subsidiary Features: To the SW, attached to the end gable wall
of No 1, a length of wall in cut block, with an interrupted
saddle-back parapet forming crenellations, rising c 1.5m.
After an opening, this returns, at c 1m height across the
whole frontage of the property, continuing until it meets a
range of C20 garages. A similar wall returns on the far side
of the garages at an acute angle, running along the top of a
retaining wall, all as the first stretch in detail. These
walls are important in defining the historical site in an
otherwise unstructured piece of townscape. Built as the
Rectory to St. George, Reforne (qv), and enlarged to the NE in
the early C19, the houses have a dramatic site on the scarp
slope above Fortuneswell, and was bounded to the south, until
its removal, by the Merchants' Railway.
(Royal Commission on Historical Monuments: Dorset: London:
1970-: 253).

Listing NGR: SY6887173106

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26569614

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

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
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  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)