Monument record 15183 - The Old Vicarage, Over Peover

<1> Jenny Wetton Conservation, 2016, The Old Vicarage, Over Peover - Archaeological Building Recording (Client Report). SCH8110.

The house is constructed in red brick laid in English Garden Wall bond with yellow sandstone detailing at the front and at the western end of the rear. It is two storeys with an attic and part-basement and covered with a Welsh slate pitched roof and gable end chimneys. The front elevation has two full-height bays, of which one is canted, and a slightly projecting centre, with a stone plinth for two-thirds of the length. The front door is positioned to the right, in the two-storey western extension and there is Classical detailing across the centre and western extension. The north-eastern extension is single-storey and one bay in width with a chimney at the gable and a brick wall extending from it, behind which is a small lean-to. There is a mixture of sash and mullioned windows.

The rear elevation has been much altered but retains a mixture of sash and mullioned windows, some of which appear to be cross-windows under segmental-arched heads. There are also recent French windows, a lancet window in an area of disturbed brickwork and a modern dormer.

Internally, the house is now largely a long rectangle in plan-form but was historically much shorter. It appears to have been built as what Brunskill (see 2) refers to as a double-pile small house, with four rooms of equal height on each of the principal floors and as a farmhouse1. There was a slightly off-centre front door, fire-places in the end walls and a staircase at the rear.

The existing front door opens onto an entrance corridor aligned roughly north-south and leading to a toilet at the far end with doorways into two living rooms to the west, both with fireplaces and large windows, the northern room with a parquet floor. Another doorway leads east into the stair hall which retains a dog-leg timber staircase with an additional modern flight on the ground floor and a fireplace. At the time of the further visit to site, floor coverings had been removed, revealing a decorative tiled floor at the bottom of the historic section of the staircase. A living room to the north retains a fireplace, a moulded beam, a beam across the bay and two others which look modern. The room to the east of this is currently used as a kitchen and has been opened to the room to the south, both with tiled floors and each room with two beams which are off-set. The eastern extension is also used as a kitchen and cloakroom, with a tiled floor; there is a stone floor in the lean-to rear entrance.

On the first floor, there are four rooms in the historic main block, of which one in the south-west corner is very small and has been converted into a bathroom with an opening to the western extension. There is a fireplace and three beams in the large north-western room, the eastern room at the front has been converted to a bathroom and the rear bedroom is quite plain with two beams of which one appears to be modern. The western extension has three rooms, of which two are large and have fireplaces, the north-western room with fitted cupboards. The second floor has two rooms under the eaves, a bathroom having been fitted to the eastern room. The western room retains a fireplace. Purlins are visible in both rooms. The removal of floor coverings at the later site visit also revealed timber board floors in many first and the second floor rooms. There is a small, two-room basement and one of the rooms retains a chamfered and stopped beam, the other has a modern steel joist.

The annexe is a long rectangular two-storey building aligned roughly north-south and also constructed of red brick laid in English Garden Wall bond with a pitched Welsh slate roof. The main block is three bays in width with a central front door on the west side flanked by two windows under segmental-arched brick heads. There are two further windows on the first floor which appear to have been inserted. A large lean-to at the south end contains storage rooms and a small stable. There are large garage doors on the east side with an inserted window above and a disturbed area of brickwork which may be an infilled window. There is a date-stone within each gable, inscribed at the north end ‘VR Jubilee 1887’ and at the south end ‘JK 1887’. Internally, the ground floor is open with a large central brick column and a timber staircase leading to the first floor which has been converted for residential accommodation with four rooms and an entrance hall/living room.

Although the map evidence is confusing, the core of the present house appears to date from the late the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century. A small rectangular house is shown on the 1841 tithe map (see 3), together with a barn and what appears to be the present access road, surrounded by fields and with the pond to the north-west. The house is called Vicarage on the 1882 map (see 4). The 1899 map (see 5) shows an extension at the north-east end and the annexe; this supports the date-stones of 1887 at either end of the annexe. There is no change to the house by 1911 (see 6) and the extension at the south-west end post-dates this.

The land is listed on the 1841 tithe apportionment (see 3) as being owned by the Incumbent of Peover Church and occupied by Peter Hewitt. Hewitt is listed in the 1851 Census return as a farmer of 51 acres who lived there with his wife, Margaret, and family of six children, of whom all except one worked on the farm. Hewitt died in 1854 and Margaret appears to have moved to another farm on Free Green Lane as she is listed in the 1861 and 1871 Census return as a farmer of 66 acres in Peover Superior, although the farm is not named, with her family and two servants. James Fuge is listed in the 1861 and 1881 returns as the Vicar of Over Peover and appears to have been the occupant of the building at this time (listed as the Parsonage and Peover Vicarage respectively), with his family and a servant. This does not provide evidence as to the identity of the J. K. on the date-stone on the annexe.

<2> Brunskill, R W, 1997, Houses and Cottages of Britain: Origins and Development of Traditional Buildings, p.82-85 (Book). SCH8894.

<3> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 323/2, 1841 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1881-2, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 6 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ77SE, 1882 (Maps and Plans). SCH2474.

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1896-98, Ordnance Survey First Revision County Series (Epoch 2) 6 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ77SE, 1899 (Maps and Plans). SCH2472.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1911-1914, Ordnance Survey Second Revision County Series (Epoch 3) 6 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ77SE, 1911 (Maps and Plans). SCH3843.

<7> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Edwards R 24/08/2020 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

Sources (3) and (4) depict a long rectangular building to the immediate north of the house. It is probably some form of combination farm building. Demolished by 1899 when the house becomes the residence of the vicar of Over Peover. This may be coincidental or evidence of the house's shift in function from a farmhouse. The house is recorded as the Old Vicarage on the 1909 Ordnance Survey 25 inch to 1 mile map (see 8) and is occuplied by a Mr William Tully by the late 1940s (see 9).

<8> Ordnance Survey, 1909-1912, Ordnance Survey Second Revision County Series (Epoch 3) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ7973, 1909 (Maps and Plans). SCH4361.

<9> Over Peover Cricket Club, N/A, Over Peover Cricket Club, www.overpeovercc.co.uk/history/ (Web Site). SCH8895.