Building record CLY 039 - The Old Rectory, Claydon

Grade II listed building. Company headquarters, formerly rectory. Mid C16 with major alterations of several periods. 2 storeys. C16 parlour wing to right, and service range, (probably C18), to left. The central hall range was rebuilt c.1930. Pre-C20 work is timber-framed and plastered. Plaintiled roofs with axial and external chimneys of red brick. Mainly early C19 sash windows with small panes. The garden elevation of the cross-wing has two C18 sash windows with segmental heads; in the centre of this wing is a small 2-storeyed gabled projection, perhaps C16, and probably a staircase wing. In the cross-wing are moulded 1st and attic floor joists and good close-studwork; the attic floor was inserted c.1600. The rebuilt hall range is of rendered masonry with limestone windows and entrance doorway in the Elizabethan manner; the 1st floor is partly constructed of reused C16 moulded floor joists as in the parlour. The Revd. George Drury (1819-1895) was the central figure in a national scandal, involving a burial at the adjoining parish of Akenham, while he was the Incumbent here (S1).

2014: A heritage statement was prepared in support of an application for planning permission. Although the main part of the building is 16th century, according to cartographic evidence the outbuilding focused on in this statement dates to the late 19th century. By the mid-20th century the property passed from the Diocese into private ownership.The north wing is a single storey with a first floor loft linked to the north end of the main building by a single storey lobby and corridor. It is a two bay painted brick building with a clay pantile roof and two axial red brick stacks. It is likely to have been used as accommodation for domestic staff. In 1955 when it passed into private ownership a single storey office was built between the north wing and the brick and flint boundary wall. Triangular in plan, it is of brick construction with a shallow pitched felted roof, and is currently used as an office. The north wing contains several small rooms used as offices and storerooms (S2).