News

The latest newsletter

(no 53, December 2023) is here.

Breaking News: 6/09/2023

Officers of the Council propose to sell the Old Rectory. The decision was to be made at the Strategy and Resources Committee on 25th September.

CORA wrote to the officer in charge, the leader of the Council and local Carshalton Councillors to object to the sale. We also contacted our members and the wider public via our newsletter, Facebook page - and a handout leaflet distributed at the recent Eco Fair.

We have recently been informed that the Leader of the Council and the Carshalton ward Councillors have asked for the item to be removed from the Strategy and Resources Committee agenda. In order to meet everyone’s concerns, they want more time to properly consider the options available. A meeting with CORA will then be arranged to discuss the best way to proceed.

For the time being, the decision has been deferred. We have a breathing space but, everything now depends on finding a suitable use for the house and a safe pair of hands to care for it.

A History of the Old Rectory

With our aim to make the Old Rectory more widely appreciated, CORA has published a book about the history of this special building. A Respectable Parsonage House looks at the various people who owned, lived or worked in the house over 300 years and is illustrated with a variety of photographs and paintings. There are plans of the building showing the various changes made over time and lots of new and sometimes surprising information.

A Respectable Parsonage House is available to buy from Honeywood Museum, priced £7.00 or can be ordered by downloading the order form HERE

The Old Rectory is now Grade II* listed

The Old Rectory was grade II listed in 1954 without any reference to the interior which was usual at that time. We thought that the listing under estimated the importance of the building as much of the inside is well preserved so we decided to ask Historic England to review the listing. In the course of preparing our case it became clear that very few purpose built rectories survive from the early 18^th century which added to importance of the building. It took Historic England a long time to review the listing but they accepted our case and the building has now been upgraded to II*. This improves the protection of the building. Planning applications for II* structures have to go to Historic England and will be more closely scrutinised.

Information wanted

Do you have any photos of the Old Rectory, particularly interior images?

Do you have any recollections of house from the end of WWII up to today?

Contact

The best way to contact us is by email:

savetheoldrectory@gmail.com