Details
BREMHILL BREMHILL VILLAGE
ST 97 SE
(south side)
8/14 The Old Vicarage
20.12.60
GV II
House, former vicarage, C15 core, C17, much altered after 1818 for
Rev W.L. Bowles and further altered later in C19 or c1900.
Roughcast with ashlar dressings and stone slate roof. Cruciform
five-shaft ridge stack, probably C17, with some shafts missing.
Rendered east stack, c1900 diagonally shafted stacks at west end
and north west corner. Two storeys and attic. North elevation and
plan in 1825 are given in Bowles' History of Bremhill and
comparison shows that west end has been built out and substantial
alterations made to the fenestration since. Ridge stack marks
division between earliest section, to east, and C17 cross-gabled
addition to west, extended westward c1900. Bowles added pierced
parapets modelled on Stourton church, built out a 2-storey range on
north front, dated 1820, and a central Gothic porch on the south,
dated 1818. The south bay windows are marked on 1825 plan, but
only single storey bay to right of centre looks c1820. South front
now has rough symmetry about centre Tudor-arched porch with two
coped gables, coved cornice and pierced parapets, dripcourse and
raised plinth. Windows generally are paired sashes in ovolo-
moulded mullioned frames, more probably post 1825. To right of
centre is gable with C17 attic 2-light window, paired first floor
sashes with hoodmould and ground floor c1820 large canted bay with
full-height sashes each side, French window to front and pierced
parapet. To right, two plain upper windows and ground floor former
paired sash, glazing since altered. To left of centre, gable has
renewed attic 2-light, and large 2-storey canted bay with sashes in
ovolo-moulded frames. Section to left, added post 1825 had paired
sash each floor, but lower pair are blocked with inserted cl900
timber oriel. Service range to east of main house. North front
roofline shows division each side of ridge stack. Section to east
has C17 attic mullion window in projecting gable and 1820 two-
storey addition in front, broken forward in front of original
gable. This section has octagonal ashlar angle turrets with open
crown caps, pierced parapets, and angle pinnacles to centre
section. Fenestration generally altered from 1825 illustration
where ground floor has two-arched entry and right octagonal turret
is not built, but Y-traceried timber window to ground floor left is
as illustrated. Section to west is more completely altered since
1825, C17 original was cross-gabled with corner stack, now north
gable remains with new mullion windows, and west gable has been
extended to west with large north side stack.
Interior not inspected but one bay of a C15 roof with fine crown
post truss survives at east end. House may be associated with a
medieval grange of Malmesbury Abbey, though Bremhill Manor (q.v.)
has also been suggested as the site. The Rev W.L. Bowles, vicar of
Bremhill 1804-45, poet, antiquarian and theorist of the picturesque
was an important figure in the literary discussions on the nature
of beauty and relative importance of the natural and the
artificial. Charles Lamb, William Wordsworth and Thomas Moore were
visitors to the vicarage, around which Bowles laid out a
picturesque garden, now largely vanished, with winding paths,
grottoes, Gothic seats and a hermit's cave.
(W.L.. Bowles, A Parochial history of the parish of Bremhill, 1828;
N. Pevsner, Wiltshire, 1975, 141; Information from D.A. Stirling,
North Wiltshire District Council)
Listing NGR: ST9802972988
