The Old Rectory in the village of
Croscombe
Croscombe is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish west of Shepton Mallet and from Wells, Somerset, Wells, in the county of Somerset, England. It is situated on the A371 road in the valley of the River Sheppey.
Croscombe has ...
within the English county of
Somerset
Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...
was built in the 17th century and rebuilt in the 18th. It is a Grade II
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
.
The two storey house has a slate roof. The door has a
triglyph
Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...
frieze
In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...
with a paterae and
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...
on twin
Tuscan pilaster
In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
s.
[ It has four bedrooms and three bathrooms. It is surrounded by gardens separated from the road by walls.]Church Commissioners
The Church Commissioners is a body which administers the property assets of the Church of England. It was established in 1948 and combined the assets of Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund dating from 1704 for the relief of poor clergy, and of the Eccle ...
that the house would be purchased, for £900,000 as a residence for Peter Hancock the incoming Bishop of Bath and Wells
The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England.
The present diocese covers the overwhelmingly greater part of the (ceremonial) county of Somerset and a small area of D ...
as an alternative to living at the traditional Bishop's Palace in Wells, to provide him with more privacy. The controversial decision was opposed by local clergy and residents, who criticised the lack of consultation.[ The decision was later reversed after a committee appointed by the Archbishops' Council ruled that the Bishop should continue to live at the Palace in Wells.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Rectory, Croscombe, The
Grade II listed buildings in Mendip District