The Old Rectory
THE OLD RECTORY, RECTORY STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1068805
- Date first listed:
- 27-Sept-1951
- List Entry Name:
- The Old Rectory
- Statutory Address:
- THE OLD RECTORY, RECTORY STREET
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Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 1999-10-28
- Reference:
- IOE01/01647/35
- Rights:
- © Mrs Janet Roworth. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1068805
- Date first listed:
- 27-Sept-1951
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 10-Sept-1987
- List Entry Name:
- The Old Rectory
- Statutory Address 1:
- THE OLD RECTORY, RECTORY STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- THE OLD RECTORY, RECTORY STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- North Lincolnshire (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Epworth
- National Grid Reference:
- SE 78515 03578
Details
SE 7803-7903 EPWORTH RECTORY STREET (north side)
20/86 The Old Rectory (formerly listed as The 27.9.51 Rectory)
GV I
Rectory, now house and museum. 1709 with later minor alterations; renovations of 1956-7. Red-brown brick, the south front in Flemish bond, west front in English garden wall bond. Pantile roof. Double-depth plan: 3-room south front incorporating central entrance hall; 2-room west garden front. 2 storeys with attic. South front: 7 bays, not quite regular, with central bay breaking forward. Ovolo-moulded plinth. Chamfered brick quoins. Entrance has C20 steps to wide 6-fielded-panel door and 4-pane overlight in architrave with slim C19 carved consoles carrying cornice and hood. C20 wooden plaque above, with painted motto and shield with arms in relief beneath broken pediment on consoles. 12-pane sashes in flush wooden architraves with restored ashlar sills and rubbed-brick flat arches, those to 3 ground-floor bays restored. (3 ground-floor and 5 first-floor windows were re-opened in 1950s restorations). 2-course brick first-floor band, stepped-out above ground-floor windows. Deep moulded and modillioned wooden eaves cornice incorporating gutter. Double-span roof, hipped to left, with raised concrete-coped gable to right. Corniced ridge stack to right of centre. Left return forms west front of 4 bays: similar details and windows (2 to ground floor with restored arches), hipped roof and C20 gabled roof dormer with 16-pane casement, corniced ridge stack to centre. Right return: three 12-pane sashes to ground and first floors, 3 unequal 9-pane sashes to attic, beneath segmental stretcher arches; twin gables with parapet between, corniced stack to right. Rear has irregular fenestration with hung and sliding sashes, C20 casements and French window, 4 gabled dormers with 16- pane casements. Interior. Entrance hall has restored chamfered basket- arched fireplace with tongue stops (the surrounding walls reputed to be sole surviving section of previous rectory), C19 moulded plaster cornice. Stairhall has fine original open-well closed-string staircase with wide corniced handrail, moulded string, turned balusters and square newel posts, one with a pendant drop, C19 moulded cornice to upper hall with acanthus leaf centre-piece and foliate mouldings to angles. Chamfered spine beam with tongue stops to ground floor rear right, boxed-in spine beam to front right, moulded cornices to front and rear left rooms, the latter also with beaded-panel cupboards with H-hinges. Reused section of timber framing for spine beam to first-floor front right, chamfered spine beams to other rooms, some with tongue stops. Plaster floors to attic. Collared rafter roof with pegged butt purlins. Built in 1709 to replace the previous rectory that was destroyed by fire earlier in the year, this house was the boyhood home of John and Charles Wesley. The attic contains "Old Jeffreys Chamber", scene of the famous hauntings recorded in John Wesley's Journal. Additions of 1883 by Francis Goddard of Lincoln were removed this century. Ceased being rectory in 1954 when it was purchased by the World Methodist Council who undertook restorations. Of considerable historic interest. W Read, History of the Isle of Axholme, 1858, p 140; N Pevsner and J Harris, The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, 1978, p 233; D L Roberts, "Lincolnshire and Humberside", in J Hadfield (ed), The Shell Book of English Villages, 1980, p 365; photographs in NMR.
Listing NGR: SE7851503578
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 165147
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Harris, J, Antram, N, The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, (1989), 233
Hadfield, J, The Shell Book of English Villages, (1980), 365
Read, W, History of the Isle of Axholme, (1858), 140
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 12-Jun-2026 at 17:57:00.
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