Listed Building: THE OLD RECTORY (1139496)

SJ 86 NE GAWSWORTH C.P. CHURCH LANE 5/6A The Old Rectory 25.7.52 GV I Rectory, now private house. Late C16. Timber framed with rendered and painted infill and plain tile roof. Two storeys with attic. Hall house. Early C19 2-storey gabled porch to centre with pointed arch to ground floor having roll moulding to rectangular wooden surround with quatrefoils to spandrels. Jetty to first floor which has two-light casement window set in close studding. Gable has decorated bargeboards. To left is hall range with close studded walls and four arched braces. This has a canted C20 oriel window to ground floor right with paired 2-light C19 casements at left. Two-light first floor window at left. To extreme left is a gabled projecting single-storey wing with slightly projecting C19 window bay. To right of porch is a late C19 chimney breast in the re-entrant angle with a canted C19 ground floor bay window adjoining this at right. Three-light window above and 2-light gabled dormer to attic with decorated bargeboards. Three and 2-light ground floor windows to right of this with single light to first floor and similar gabled dormer to attic at right. To right of this is a projecting single-storey gabled wing with close-studding and arched bracing and C20 fenestration. Rear: Large gabled C19 brick additions to centre and right. To left is a C19 outshut at ground floor level with close-studded walling to first floor with arched braces. Interior: Hall, 2 bays. Truss of cambered tie beam with moulded boss to centre supported on heavy moulded arched braces with queen posts above. C20 replacement canted oriel at west end of south wall. Screened wall at eastern end with three four-centred doors with moulded frames. Timbered first floor passage above. (Perhaps originally open gallery). C20 fireplace to North wall incorporating a C16 panel bearing inscription relating to the Fitton family. To left of this is a 2-light C15 window with wooden frame, moulded mullion and ogee heads to lights. Study: moulded ceiling beams with bosses. Mary Fitton room: Small framing to walls and moulded beams. Moulded plaster ceiling to passage outside Mary Fitton room. Hall bedroom truss of cambered tie beam with angled braces. Fireplace of 1724 with bolection-moulded surround and painted panel to overmantel recording the restoration of the building by the Rector, William Hall. A later restoration, in 1873, was by Norman Shaw. One of the best preserved medium-sized houses of the period in Cheshire, particularly valuable for the survival of the open hall. Sources: Nikolaus Pevsner & Edward Hubbard - The Buildings of England, Cheshire. Raymond Richards, The Manor of Gawsworth. Andrew Saint, Richard Norman Shaw, 1976, p.411 Listing NGR: SJ8897769777