MSO10743 - Former rectory, Selworthy (Building)

A rectory with 16th Century origins, extensively altered in the late 19th and mid 20th Centuries and now forming two private dwellings. A surviving early to mid 19th Century model held here shows the house prior to alterations.

Rectory, now 2 private dwellings. C16 in origin, extensively altered late C19 and mid C20. Roughcast over rubble, setback buttresses west end and south-west corner, slate roofs, external stack west gable end, south gable, lateral stack east side. L-plan, parallel range of dairy east end, subsequently raised to 2 storeys, stair turret north east corner. Two storeys, 3:2 bays south front, left full height gabled bay, 3-light right, gabled 4-light beyond, all C20, gable front south end with 2-light ogee headed casement in place of earlier entrance to right of stack, raised dairy end, oriel window with ogee light, C20 door with side lights below, 4-bay west front, left return with ogee headed lights under hoodmoulds. Extensively altered internally and externally buttress only early feature now surviving, but early-mid C19 model at the Old Rectory shows house prior to alterations; entered on north front through full height gabled porch flanked by lateral stacks, 3-bay rear elevation, 3-bay south front, single storey dairy and stair turret on east elevation. A rare example of a vernacular house with a model surviving from previous century. [1] English Heritage Listed Building Number: 265528. First Listed on 22/05/1969. [2] L-plan. Stone, Render, roughcast and pebbledash walls. Gabled roof [3] The building was visited in May 2012 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. It received a BAR score of 6. [4] The former Rectory somewhat hidden from view, was much altered and extended in the late 19th Century, and again in the mid 20th Century when it was converted to two private dwellings. It is 16th Century in origin and the early part was L-shaped with a stair turret and two external stacks. The listing details mention that an “early-mid 19th Century model at the Old Rectory shows [the] house prior to alterations…a rare example of a vernacular house with a model surviving from [a] previous century.” Close to the former Tithe Barn is Cross Acres which appears to be a 19th Century conversion of a former stone outbuilding with a tile-hung canted bay oriel window.[5] The building was subject to historic building recording. It is Grade II Listed with The Old Rectory as they once formed one dwelling. The two houses are two storey under pitched roofs and are the west and south wings of an L shaped building, built of local mixed Devonian rubble stone, obscured in places by painted render. The survey enhanced an original drawing made in 1933. The combined property was run as a hotel and a convalescent home in the mid 20th Century. Notable features in the interior include several chamfered beams and a chimney stack visible in the roofspace that bears features suggesting the roof level was formerly lower. Several of the internal doors are of six panel 18th Century style but hung on butt hinges. A historical note in 1897 recorded that when David Williams became rector of Selworthy in 1780 the buildings “were in a very ruinous condition and the west wing had to be pulled down nearly to the ground and reroofed,” with mention of “a central stone wall four feet thick running across the house for its whole height that caused much difficulty”. The rectory was sold in 1934 and re emerged as a country house hotel. It was subsequently divided into two dwellings in 1953. A model is held within the property that shows how it was laid out in the early to mid 19th Century. It was noted to be a valuable source of information about the house. [6] The building is depicted in an L shape, subdivided into two, on the 2020 MasterMap data. The southeastern end is labelled "The Old Rectory" and the western end "Crossacres". [7]