The Old Vicarage

Summary

House, former vicarage, including service yard and outbuildings, 1844-1855, built to designs by William McIntosh Brookes.

Reasons for Designation

The Old Vicarage, 1844-1855, by William McIntosh Brookes is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as a building of architectural quality, a polite composition, refined in its detail and craftsmanship inside and out;

* as a good representative example of a C19 rural vicarage, including legible ensemble of service wing, walled yard and outbuildings;

* despite some losses and alteration, the building’s plan, architectural character and the relative hierarchy of its component parts remain readily legible.

Historic interest:

* as an example of the domestic work of noted architect, William McIntosh Brookes.

History

The Old Vicarage was built in 1844-1855 to serve as the vicarage to the Church of St Giles (listed Grade I) in the parish of Tonge, Kent. The previous vicarage stood a short distance to the north-west of the church but is thought to have fallen into disrepair by the first half of the C19. A new site, a little under a mile to the south of the church, on the opposite side of the London to Canterbury road, was purchased from local landowner, George Lake, in 1844.

The new vicarage was designed by London-based architect, William McIntosh Brookes and constructed by local builder, John Davy of Ospringe. Proposed plans by Brookes are held at Kent Archives and comparison with the standing fabric suggests the house was largely built in accordance with this design.

The building was home to successive vicars of Tonge Parish until 1926, when it was sold into private ownership, conveyed to the wife of the then incumbent, Reverend Josiah Marling Apperley (1848-1928). The house is thought to have been renamed Apperley House before becoming The Old Vicarage by the mid-1930s.

Ordnance Survey maps show additional outbuildings appearing in the service courtyard to the west of the house between 1885 and 1896. The footprint of these buildings remains largely unaltered to the present day, however the buildings themselves have undergone some renewal of fabric and remodelling. The house too, shows evidence of some alteration. Mapping indicates the southward extension of one of the rear reception rooms took place between 1896 and 1908, and by 1938 a glasshouse had been added against the rebuilt south wall of this room. There is also evidence of alteration to some of the window openings and joinery, as well as the addition, and subsequent partial loss, of external louvred shutters.

Brookes’ drawings propose a veranda along the east side of the house, evidence for this having been built is inconclusive. There is, however, evidence for there once having been a similar feature to the south, lost perhaps when the window was changed to a fully glazed canted bay. The greatest area of change is in the service wing of the house. Originally this was mostly single storey; it now has two full stories and the ground floor has been remodelled in several phases and now includes a service stair to the first-floor rooms. The plan form of the main house survives well, although more recent changes on the first floor have seen doorway openings closed off and new ones opened up to create ensuite bathrooms for the principal bedrooms.

William McIntosh Brookes (1800-1849) studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge and the Royal Academy Schools in London. He became a Fellow of the RIBA and from 1829 was based in Adam Street, Adelphi, City of Westminster. He designed a number of public and ecclesiastical buildings, adopting a range of stylistic approaches. Works include Gisborne Court, Peterhouse, Cambridge, 1825-6 (in a Tudor Gothic style, listed as part of Peterhouse, Grade I); Ipswich County Hall, formerly courthouse, 1836-7 (also Tudor Gothic, listed Grade II); Aldbury Catholic Apostolic Church, Surrey, 1837-9 (designed with William Wilkins in a Perpendicular Gothic style, listed Grade II*); the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Albury, Surrey, 1840-1 (in a Romanesque style, listed Grade II), and the remodelling of the Shire Hall at Bury St Edmonds, 1841-2 (Brookes added a Greek Doric octostyle portico; the building is listed at Grade II but Brookes’ contribution was demolished in the early C20).

Details

House, former vicarage, 1844-1855, built to designs by William McIntosh Brookes. The service wing, yard and outbuilidngs contribute to the special interest of the whole, but are of lesser interest on an individual basis because of the degree of alteration they have undergone.

MATERIALS: yellow brick with a slate roof.

PLAN: the main house is roughly square in plan with a shallow hipped roof. It has two storeys over a partial basement. The front elevation faces north-northwest, the garden elevation south-southeast. For ease of reference in this description, the elevations will be referred as north, south, east and west. The former service wing adjoins the west side of the house and to the west of this is a service yard.

The main house is of three bays with a central entrance to the north and a four-square arrangement of reception rooms, each served by its own stack. An L-shaped entrance and stair hall separates east and west reception rooms to the front, and front and rear reception rooms to the west. The reception rooms to the west are more altered, the front room has now been divided to create a WC and study, accessed from the hall and former service wing respectively. The rear room has been extended across its width to the south. The two larger reception rooms on the east side of the hall retain their original form.

The first-floor rooms, which are accessed from a galleried landing, retain their original proportions but door openings have been altered, some added, some removed, to form ensuite bathrooms. The nursery, which originated as two interconnecting rooms, is now two separate rooms.

The former service wing is now two full storeys high with gabled roof. It originally comprised a kitchen, scullery, larder, pantry and privies arranged around a small open coal yard, set behind a screen wall to the north, running almost continuous with the front elevation of the house. Above the kitchen was a small loft room (labelled ‘Mans Lo.’ on Brookes’ plan), accessed via a ladder, and the ‘Female Servants Chamber’, accessed from the half-landing of the main stair within the house. The ground floor has now been largely opened-up and the coal yard absorbed into the interior. A stair to the first-floor rooms is in the approximate location of the original pantry. The larder and the position of the entrance to the coal yard from the scullery, remains legible. The first floor has essentially been rebuilt, extending it to the full footprint of the service wing to provide two bedrooms. A recent phase of remodelling has given each bedroom an ensuite bathroom.

To the west of the former service wing is a walled yard (the north enclosing wall now lost) lined with single-storey outbuildings.

EXTERIOR: the house is a simple classical composition of yellow brick beneath a shallow hipped roof with deep eaves. Windows are multi-pane double-hung sashes beneath flat gauged arches, unless otherwise noted.

The principal elevation has three bays and a plat band. There is a central brick entrance porch with pedimented head and round-headed arch with fanlight. Set within the porch is a wide, half-glazed front door with arched fanlight. To either side are six-over-six sash windows, and above are three three-over-six sash windows. A small window has been inserted to the immediate west of the porch. Also to the west, a stair runs parallel to the front of the house from ground level down to a small area with a door to the basement. The enclosing metal balustrade is late C20 or C21.

The east elevation also has a plat band, meeting wide, shallow brick piers to either side. Two first-floor windows are three-over-six sashes, flanking a central two-over-four sash. All three windows have louvred shutters. There are two ground-floor windows, both six-over-six sashes with empty pintles in the reveals where shutters have been lost. There is evidence in the bonding, and in the disturbance to the brickwork beneath both ground floor windows, to suggest that these were originally full-length windows (as shown on Brookes’ drawings) which were subsequently altered to raise the sills. Faint, curved, shadow lines to left and right of the respective window heads may be evidence of the tented roof of a lost veranda.

The rear elevation to the south is slightly stepped, the eastern half breaking forward of the western. The east half has a plat band and a single three-over six sash window with louvered shutters to the first floor. At ground floor there is a full-height canted bay window with central six-over-nine sash window and two-over-three windows to either side. The absence of closer bricks indicates this opening has been widened. To either side of the window are shadow lines of what was probably a veranda with tented roof. The western half of the elevation has been built out at ground floor level, in line with the eastern half, and a balcony created above. The lower part of the elevation is almost fully glazed: beneath transom lights there are sliding timber doors with glazing bars, hung from above by rollers on a track. A predominantly timber conservatory on a brick plinth has been built against this arrangement, enclosing it within the house. The conservatory appears on the mapping by 1938 but the fabric of the current structure post-dates this. On the first floor, what is likely to have originated as a sash window, is now a pair of French windows opening onto the balcony. The ironwork around the balcony is late C20 or C21.

The former service range is against the west elevation of the house. To the north it is slightly set back from the principal entrance front of the main house and has an irregular arrangement of sash and casement windows with segmental arches and flat heads, all appear later additions reflecting the upward extension and internal remodelling. The only original feature is a central archway, now bricked up. The west elevation has an original window and door opening at ground floor. Both have segmental heads and the window is likely to be original joinery – a pair of timber casements, one opening one fixed, with flush-panelled shutters. A second window opening has been bricked up. There is a single window each at first floor and attic level. The rear, to the south, is partially screened at ground floor by a second conservatory. Maps suggest a similar feature was in place by the late C19, but the fabric of the current structure is later. Ground floor windows and openings appear later, first floor windows appear contemporary with its rebuilding.

INTERIOR: the principal ground-floor spaces of the main house are characterised by tall floor-to ceiling heights, deep skirting boards, slender plaster cornices and wide four-panel doors. The stair has an open string and slender stick balusters with a wreathed hardwood handrail.

Most of the windows have hinged shutters which fold into splayed reveals. The principal rooms to the west have simple marble chimney pieces, one black, one white, each with service bell levers to either side. Both rooms have had Adams style enrichment added over the door architrave at a later date. The rooms to the east are plainer and more altered. Both have a picture rail but no cornice; the room to front has lost the fireplace and been divided to create a separate WC and the room to the rear has a later chimney piece and has been extended outwards and now has glazed sliding doors. The joinery of these doors may be contemporary with the date of extension – around 1900.

The first floor is similar in character to the ground floor but with lower floor-to-ceiling heights, simpler joinery and no cornices to the individual rooms. Chimney pieces, where they survive, comprise simple flat timber surrounds with a small mantle-shelf.

The former service wing is reached internally from behind the main stair. It has been opened up on the ground floor but doors to the larder and utility room may be the original doors to the larder and coal yard. A service stair, presumably added when the first floor was rebuilt, is housed within a timber boarded enclosure. There is an electric service bell indicator board and a bank of service bells attached to the stair enclosure. The first-floor rooms, which can also be reached from the landing of the main stair, are the result of several phases of remodelling.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES
The service yard to the west is enclosed by a brick wall, although this has been lost to the north. It is partially paved in brick setts and traditional stable flooring blocks. The outbuildings are predominantly brick with some weather boarding, and what was possibly a stable building is enclosed by half-glazed folding garage doors opening onto the yard. The joinery of these buildings is late C20 or C21.

Sources

Books and journals
Colvin, H, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, (1995), pp. 163-4

Other
Ourhousehistory.com report, The Old Vicarage, Tonge, January 2008
Conveyance of land for parsonage, various documents, held at Kent Archives, ref: DCb/D/C/T/11/1

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