The Old Rectory, Burton

Author: Chris Bennett

This article explores the history of The Old Rectory, formerly Nettleton Rectory, occasionally known as ‘Bryanston’, but touches also on the adjacent St. Mary’s Church and The Coach House, known to be linked to the Rectory estate.

The information was commissioned by the present owner Alastair McKee from a professional researcher (a full copy of her report can be viewed here).

The Old Rectory

The Old Rectory is the former rectory of the parish of Nettleton, Burton and West Kington, and sits next to the Grade 1 listed c13 church of St Mary’s in the tiny village of Burton. Burton was added to Nettleton in 1934.

Since it was part of the church, the bulk of the former residents have been vicars. The earliest parts of the existing building date from 1605, according to church and village lore – although a document that proves this has not come to light.

The Rectory is not listed. This may have been due to the vast changes made to the building in 1872 and 1937, and the state of the building in the late 1970s when the initial listings system was decided upon.

Renovations & Inhabitants

The lands extended from the church wall to the rear wall of the Old House at Home pub. This included a series of outbuildings as part of the property. One of these was a Coach House, which later became separated from the main property.

A two-storey extension was added to the rear of the house in 1872/3 by Rector Woodman. Colloquially, it is thought this was intended to add extra rooms to house his many daughters. In 1937, possibly due to its dilapidated condition, the forward part of the older portion of the house was removed. An internal wall turned external, with the original windows reused. The main entrance to the building was moved around the corner from its original place, and now forms a minor entrance.

The building was sold c1960, when the parish was amalgamated with Littleton Drew which had its own rectory. It has been in private ownership since.

One family owned the house from c1960 until the early 21^st century, with parents in the main house and daughter and her husband in the coach house. From a book of photographs and leaflets on the church, complied c1992:

The Old Rectory was substantially altered and added to in 1873 and it is thought that The Coach House dates from this period.

The house was sold again in the early 21^st century, where the new owners renovated the grounds and added a swimming pool and stables.

The only old picture of the house is this one. The original façade of the house can be seen, along with several trees that now no longer exist.

Nettleton Rectory

In comparison, the photograph below shows the building in its current form, dated in 2021 

The Rectory as it is today

Church Diocese records show a list of incumbents at the church and based on the period the Rectory was built we can deduce the first occupant of the house would have been:

Edward Hutchins

Edward was rector or parson of Nettleton from 1597 until 1628

The diocese records says that he had an MA. which may have been from Brasenose College in Oxford. He was also vicar at Brinkworth in 1603.

Frederick Thomas Woodman, MA; wife Mary Matilda Woodman (Riches) and family

Also of interest is the incumbent Frederick Woodman who came from Bradwell in Oxfordshire, he had a large family of 10 daughters.

He studied at Hertford College, Oxford, and received an MA – probably in theology.

On the 1851 census he’s living in Paddington with his widowed mother, and gives himself as a clergyman without a parish.

Frederick was rector of Nettleton with Burton from 1870 to 1891, and lived at The Rectory, and from Census records for 1871, with his large family, maybe why the building underwent a large extension. Over the years his wife and most of the children died and were buried within the church grounds.

The fact that so many daughters died of tuberculosis points to there being a common point of infection, possibly within the home itself. This could be an animal, for example an infected cow providing milk for the household, or something else within the home. This idea is borne out by the fact that the daughter who left the rectory managed to live until she was in her 90s.

A plaque to the Woodman family is erected in the church.

To conclude the interest of the church in the Rectory, it is mentioned that the diocese proposed the sale of the rectory on the retirement of the vicar Ralph Bryant through ill health in 1959.

The house was sold at some point after 1960, as it stops being referred to in the records as the Rectory. It took on a new name which wasn’t immediately obvious in the records. It was called Bryanston, from some point in the early 1960s.

The existence of the new name is finally evident when a postcode index is added to the electoral register in 1974, which narrows down the possible names of the houses. Then a mistake in the name is made in the 1977 electoral register where the property is called Nettleton Rectory, and then the following year it is back to being Bryanston.

Robert William Edwin Upward, Joan Frances Upward nee Dodimead, and family

On the 1982 electoral register, Robert and Joan are given as living at Bryanston, whereas daughter Vivienne and her husband Robert Johnson are living at the Old Rectory Coach House, so the two properties were still linked at this time.

Vivienne and Robert still owned the property afterwards, and indeed lived in it themselves until at least 1999. They’re on the 1999 electoral register as residents, with the Coach House being lived in by another couple. This may be the time when the two buildings were separated to form separate/independent properties.

Alastair McKee

Current owner Alastair McKee purchased the property in 2018.

Much more information on this historical building is available in the full report.

An earlier form of this article by Chris Bennett first appeared in The Bugle.