Building record WGW 042 - Halycon House, Church Street

Halcyon House is the former rectory of Worlingworth: a grade II-listed(?) building set in its own grounds adjoining the churchyard on the southern side of Church Road. The property’s present name is of recent origin, deriving from a cup-winning horse belonging to a previous incumbent, and it is still listed as The Rectory. John Ridgard’s extensive research into medieval Worlingworth concluded that a rectory occupied this site in the 14th century and probably long before, and the house is depicted with two cross-wings flanking a central hall on a remarkable pictorial map of the parish drawn in circa 1606. At first sight the present building is a late-Georgian structure like many others in the county, rebuilt as part of a nationwide movement to modernise the living conditions of the clergy. It contains the usual features of the period, such as a symmetrical façade and a central stair passage leading to a spacious stick-baluster staircase, along with less subtle Victorian additions such as canted bay windows. It represents a relatively well preserved example of this type, although recent changes such as the inner lobby with its glazed screen and blocked Georgian doors arguably detract from its historic integrity. On closer inspection, however, the building is revealed as a notorious historic rarity: a largely intact medieval and Tudor timber-framed rectory of considerable historic importance. These buildings were among the most impressive in the medieval landscape, second only to the local manor house, but are poorly understood as so few survived the aforementioned phase of rebuilding. Unfortunately the early fabric is so thoroughly hidden that little can be said with any confidence about its exact layout, although its imposing scale and height remains apparent when compared with contemporary rural housing. A narrow rear wing probably represents part of an early- to mid-15th century parlour cross-wing with a raised ceiling and walls, while the front range is a reconstruction of the early- or mid-16th century with exceptionally high ogee-moulded ceilings on the site of a medieval hall. Any future alterations to the walls may uncover more of this fabric, perhaps with evidence of pre-Georgian interior decoration, and should accordingly proceed with caution (S1).