Kilvert’s Parsonage, Langley Burrell, Wiltshire, SN15 (Grade II*)

LANGLEY BURRELL SWINDON ROAD ST 97 SW WITHOUT (east side)

10/174 Kilvert’s Parsonage

22.12.78 II *

House, 1739 for Adam Tuck, possibly on earlier core, enlarged c1840. Squared rubble stone with ashlar dressings to west front, roughcast side walls, stone slate hipped roof to front with rear stacks. Fine formal 2-storey, 3-window west front with slight centre break and ashlar pediment. Ashlar plinth, sill courses to each floor, bands over window heads, the upper band under moulded eaves cornice. Centre break has flush quoins, outer angles have raised ashlar piers. Twelve-pane sashes each side in architraves, arched-headed centre window in architrave with moulded imposts and centre 6-panel door with fanlight in bolection moulded surround interrupted for heavy impost blocks and keystone, said to be dated 1739, date obscured. Door is set in shallow Tuscan porch of two columns with pilaster responds and flat entablature. Roughcast south side has 3-window range of 12-pane sashes in architraves and one hipped dormer. Roughcast north side has side-wall stack and 3- storey elevation of various sashes. A single storey outbuilding runs east and connects at right angles with a stable and coach house with half-hipped roof, door window and cambered-head coach entry. Said to have panelled interior with enriched mouldings, panelled stair hall, stairs with three balusters per tread, one in three twisted. House was purchased as Rectory for Langley Burrell by Squire Ashe in 1855, when he demolished the C18 rectory by the church. The Rev Robert Kilvert (died 1882) was rector from 1855 and his son Francis (born 1840) was brought up here and lived here as his father’s curate during the period covered in his diaries. In neglect and overgrown with ivy at time of survey (November 1986). (W. Plomer ed Kilver’s Diary 1969; K.R. Clew Kilvert’s Langley Burrell 1981)