The Old Vicarage and Hastings House, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire

Summary

Vicarage constructed in 1860 to the designs of James Piers St Aubyn, subdivided into two dwellings in the early C21.

Description

DETAILS: vicarage constructed in 1860 to the designs of James Piers St Aubyn, subdivided into two dwellings in the early C21.

MATERIALS: constructed of brick, predominately in English bond, with stone dressings under a slate roof.

PLAN: the building is roughly L-shaped with a slightly projecting gable on the south elevation.

EXTERIOR: the building is designed in a decorative High Gothic Revival style with geometric polychromatic brickwork. The brickwork is arranged across the principal elevations (south and east) with burnt headers creating diaper patterns and stretchers creating decorative bands. A decorative band across this elevation contains brick and stone laid in Flemish bond, bordered by burnt stretchers. The arches above the window and door openings also contain decorative polychromatic brickwork. Five brick chimney stacks are situated across the building, two within the west-east range, and three within the range to the north.

The entrance elevation (south) features an off-centre projecting hipped gable with leaded ventilation finial. The principal entrance (now used exclusively by The Old Vicarage) is framed by a polychromatic stone pointed arch with stone hood mould and scrolled ends. To the left is a decorative cast-iron plate which once would have housed a bell. The plank door is original and features large iron strap hinges with scroll detail and a large handle with exaggerated keyhole. The building’s principal six-light stair window is situated to the west of the entrance door and contains opening casements on the middle panes. The top lights of the window have gothic-arched heads. The projecting gable contains a further two-light casement directly above the door, and a small, single-light casement at ground floor level. To the west the elevation has three further openings, a large eight-light casement at ground level under a large segmental arch and two further windows above with flat arches beneath the eaves. To the east of the gable the elevation continues with decorative diaper brickwork but is blind without any openings.

The east elevation faces the road and has a roughly central half-hipped gable with the apex containing the date of ‘1860’ in burnt brickwork. There is further decorative diaper pattern brickwork across this elevation. The gable contains a small, canted bay window at ground floor with a central six light casement window flanked to either side by slim, two-light casements. Above is a large opening under a segmental arch containing a window with eight lights. To the north there is an additional bay with a six-light window at first floor and a late-C20 timber double below with reconstituted stone step. To the south is a further bay with six-light casements on each floor. The ground floor window is under a segmental arch.

The north elevation has three window openings at ground floor, the two to the west are slim, containing multi-pane casements with a larger window at the centre of the elevation. An additional multi-pane casement is situated directly above at first floor, all openings are under polychromatic brick segmental arches. Two brick end stacks with tumbling brick courses are situated on this elevation.

The west elevation contains the current principal entrance to Hastings House with a partially glazed entrance door under a polychromatic brick segmental arch. A fixed cast-iron boot scraper is in situ adjacent to the entrance. Across the elevation there are a number of window openings of varying sizes, four are on the ground floor under brick arches, and four more are above with the window directly above the entrance also having a decorative brick arch. The others at first floor level have flat arches, which are partially concealed by the eaves. To the south is the end of the west-east range of the L-shaped building, with a stepped brick chimney flue on the north exterior wall. The west elevation of the west-east range is blind with some decorative burnt brick banding.

INTERIOR:

THE OLD VICARAGE: from the building’s principal entrance, two stone steps lead to the entrance porch which features decorative C19 floor tiling. The porch leads through a partially glazed door to a large entrance hall with the floor tiling continuing throughout. The entrance hall features a fireplace at its north-west end with chamfered gothic arch and a mantel supported by moulded corbels with simple, panelled over-mantel behind. This fireplace matches a number of others throughout The Old Vicarage, this one in the principal entrance retains its iron grate. At the south end of the room is the vicarage’s principal closed-tread stair with newel post and a moulded rail. The stair has an open well with quarter landings and has hanging pendants. The balusters are intersected by a parallel lower rail with every other baluster half-height and fixed to the lower rail only. Beneath the stair is a six-panelled door with chamfer detail leading to a cupboard with a single casement window. The hallway is lit by the large stair light which has a panelled frame below with concealed shutters operated by a sash pulley system. The window is framed by a large gothic arch above the stair. At the west end of the building is a large reception room with C19 moulded skirting, picture rail and cornicing. The windows in this room, and the other principal ground floor rooms in the house, have wooden shutters which are concealed behind a panelled frame below. To the east of the entrance hall is an additional room, now in use as a kitchen, with a matching gothic fireplace surround to the hall. The fireplace has had its grate removed and later slate tiles have been inserted. A slim, panelled door between the kitchen and the entrance porch has been retained but is blocked by the insertion of shelving. To the north of the hall, there is a small cloakroom with the original passageway leading to the north blocked.

On the first floor, there are two rooms with similar gothic fireplace surrounds, one to the west of the landing and the other to the east. The fireplaces feature the same gothic arches as those on the ground floor but without the over-mantle and large moulded corbels. The east end bedroom has a fitted cupboard with panelling to match the doors elsewhere. At the south of the building, a small room in use as an office contains a further plastered gothic arch to frame the window. There is a bathroom both to the west of the stair and to the north of the landing.

The internal doors throughout The Old Vicarage have largely been retained and have either four or six panels with chamfered edges and are beneath moulded architraves.

HASTINGS HOUSE: the principal entrance to Hastings House is accessed via the west elevation and originally formed the service end of the vicarage. The entrance opens to a hallway with quarry-tiled flooring. The stair within the hallway is the original service stair and has a closed tread with a chamfered newel post and simple stick balusters. There is panelling beneath the balustrade and a hanging pendant above. A small former pantry is situated immediately to the north of the hall and contains fixed slate shelving with brick piers. The former pantry also contains wrought iron meat hooks which are fixed to ceiling beams. To the east, is a reception room which leads to the building’s current kitchen and pantry, with further brick and slate shelving within. The quarry tile continues through to the reception room which is likely to have originally housed the building’s kitchen and contains a modern wood burner on the north wall. There are built in cupboards on the north and south walls with modern French doors leading to the garden to the east. To the south of this room is one of the vicarage’s principal reception rooms and contains a mid-C19 large marble fireplace on the south wall. The fireplace surround has a moulded gothic arch with incised circular detail; the grate has been removed and replaced with a modern burner. The large bay window on the east wall contains further concealed shutters below, identical to those elsewhere in the building. An original six-panelled door to the west of the fireplace has been retained but is blocked from the other side within The Old Vicarage as part of the subdivision. Original joinery within the room includes cornicing, a picture rail, dado rail, skirting and architraves. To the south of the stair is a further room, currently in use as an office, containing a blocked fireplace with flat arch and chamfer detail on the north wall.

The first floor of Hastings House has a total of three bedrooms, the largest of which is at the south-east end. This bedroom has surviving fireplace with original grate and gothic arch on the south wall. To the west, a bathroom contains a fireplace with grate and flat arch, identical to the one directly beneath it on the ground floor. At the north-east end of the building is a further bedroom with a flat-arch fireplace on the north wall, also with its original grate. Immediately to the west of the fireplace is a C19 fitted cupboard. Further to the east is a further bathroom and beyond is the third bedroom. A flat-arch fireplace matching those elsewhere in the building is situated on the north wall. Immediately to the east of the stair on the first-floor landing is a further fitted cupboard.

The majority of the original panelled doors with chamfer detail survive, throughout the interior. The window furniture is of a variety of dates though has been largely replaced during the C20; an original scrolling latch and handle appears to survive within the bathroom on the first floor. Hastings House also has a basement which is accessed via a door under the stair. Brick steps lead to the vaulted basement level below which contains built-in shelving of brick piers and stone shelves. There is a brick ramp to access the street level (now blocked) and wrought iron hooks fixed to the basement’s vaulted brick ceiling.

History

The building which is now known as the two separate dwellings The Old Vicarage and Hastings House was originally constructed as a vicarage to the neighbouring church of the Holy Trinity in 1860. The vicarage was constructed to the designs of London architect James Piers St Aubyn. A newspaper article from the period describes the new dwelling as ‘…“Victorian Gothic,” which, though not uncommon elsewhere, is a novel one here…’. The cost of the construction of the house and garden was reported to be £1430. The vicarage was constructed on a parcel of land gifted by the Marquis of Hastings with the cost of the building acquired partly from a grant from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners with the rest raised from voluntary contributions and fundraising.

It is understood that the vicarage was sold into private ownership in 1986 and then remained a single dwelling up until the early C21. In 1994 timber French doors were installed to replace a window on the east elevation. Consent to divide the five-bedroom house into two smaller dwellings was granted in 2014. The subdivision of the house involved the blocking of two internal doorways and the construction of a wall to divide the central hallways on both floors.

Reasons for Listing

The Old Vicarage and Hastings House, constructed in 1860 to the designs of James Piers St Aubyn, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the former vicarage is an ambitious and well-executed gothic design with carefully massed facades facing the roads and clear attention to detail;
* the building has good quality architectural detailing including decorative brickwork and carved stonework demonstrating skilled craftsmanship;
* the building survives well, retaining its original plan and a good level of internal fittings including C19 joinery, floor tiling and fireplaces.

Historic interest:

* the vicarage is designed by the well-regarded architect James Piers St Aubyn and is an interesting domestic example of his architectural skill.

External Links

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