| Description | The Vicarage, Wakefield. Former vicarage with possible 1349 origins.
The original vicarage was built by the Dean and College of St. Stephen's, Westminster for the accommodation of the first Vicar of Wakefield, Thomas de Drayton in 1349. It stood approximate to the current location to the immediate south of former The Rectory Manor, a medieval great house and associated a tithe barn (see PRN 13057) (Walker, J.W. 1972. 'Wakefield. Its history and people'. Volume 1. Page 133).
WYAAS archives holds academic research in to the history of the Vicarage by John Goodchild (Manchester University) 1997. Goodchild's research was drawn from the diocesan archives at the Borthwick Institute in York. There are accounts from 1684, 1697, 1727 and 1743 that describe the Vicarage as church property. A 1764 document describes the property as built of stone, wood and plaster, with a stone roof; with thirteen rooms, kitchen, brew house and two cellars. A side room was wainscoted. By 1770 the house was built of stone and brick. The development of the site may have been continuous from the 14th century. Goodchild describes the wooden framing and a great stone chimney breast as typical of a timber framed building (Goodchild, J. 1997. Academic research into the history of The Old Vicarage, Wakefield). A well appointed vicarage would consist of a hall, two chambers at least, kitchen, stable, garden, grange and animal houses.
The Vicarage was the subject of an archaeological assessment by Peter Thornborrow c.1993. The photographic images produced by the assessment are held by WYAAS (Thornborrow, P.H. 1993). There are several extant features in Thornborrow’s images which suggest an early date of origin; a stone built external chimney stack, beams in the loft which are slotted to take wall planking, a king post roof truss with curved braces, use of pre 19th century hand made brick in external walls, multi phase brick and masonry in exterior walls and a stone rubble retaining wall to the north of the building.
The brief fieldwork notes which described the Churchill Room of the Vicarage (by that time a Conservative Club) are also held by WYAAS. Thornborrow describes an oak fireplace with pilasters which records the Mayors of the City of Wakefield from 1878 1973. The mantel was made from the old oak beams taken from this building during renovations in 1908. The room is a large well proportioned room of six bays. Each bay is divided by plaster clad beams with windows to each bay which retain architrave and panelled surrounds (with shutters) with raised and fielded panels. The rear doorway enters a lobby.
Thornborrow's notes also contain a sketch of the king post truss with curved braces running from tie beam to principal rafter and a pair of trenched purlins (Thornborrow, P.H. (WYAS). c.1993).
WYAAS archives holds a copy of first and second floor plans of the Vicarage attributed to Chris Constable (c.2003). |