News

The latest newsletter

(no 62, September 2024) is here.

Latest News: December 2023

Just in time for Christmas we had some unexpected but very welcome news. John Phillips was informed by the Council that they had received a favourable response from the Landmark Trust. The Trust have said that they would be interested in acquiring the Old Rectory from the Council - subject to receiving and considering further detailed information – and on condition that the Council gifts the property to the Landmark Trust at nil cost. Officers will now consider this and will discuss the proposal with Cllr.Dombey, as well as other Councillors, in the New Year. They will then be in touch with CORA.

A History of the Old Rectory

With our aim to make the Old Rectory more widely appreciated, CORA has published a book about the history of this special building. A Respectable Parsonage House looks at the various people who owned, lived or worked in the house over 300 years and is illustrated with a variety of photographs and paintings. There are plans of the building showing the various changes made over time and lots of new and sometimes surprising information.

A Respectable Parsonage House is available to buy from Honeywood Museum, priced £7.00 or can be ordered by downloading the order form HERE

The Old Rectory is now Grade II* listed

The Old Rectory was grade II listed in 1954 without any reference to the interior which was usual at that time. We thought that the listing under estimated the importance of the building as much of the inside is well preserved so we decided to ask Historic England to review the listing. In the course of preparing our case it became clear that very few purpose built rectories survive from the early 18^th century which added to importance of the building. It took Historic England a long time to review the listing but they accepted our case and the building has now been upgraded to II*. This improves the protection of the building. Planning applications for II* structures have to go to Historic England and will be more closely scrutinised.

Information wanted

Do you have any photos of the Old Rectory, particularly interior images?

Do you have any recollections of house from the end of WWII up to today?

Contact

The best way to contact us is by email:

savetheoldrectory@gmail.com