The Vicarage (which is also known as The Refectory) in

Congresbury Congresbury is a village and civil parish on the northwestern slopes of the Mendip Hills in North Somerset, England, which in 2011 had a population of 3,497. It lies on the A370 between Junction 21 of the M5 and Bristol Airport, south of Bris ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England, includes an early 19th-century vicarage and former Priests House from around 1446. It has been designated as a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The eastern range comprising the Refectory was built by executors of Bishop

Thomas Beckington Thomas Beckington (also spelt Beckynton; c. 139014 January 1465) was the Bishop of Bath and Wells and King's Secretary in medieval England under Henry VI. Life Beckington was born at Beckington in Somerset, and was educated at Winchester an ...

Wells Wells most commonly refers to: * Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England * Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground * Wells (name) Wells may also refer to: Places Canada *Wells, British Columbia England * Wells ...

whose heraldic devices and those of the Poulteney family are on the porch. There are also carved faces on the window surrounds. The specific year of construction is not known but thought to be between 1440 and 1470, although the porch which may be slightly later than other parts of the building has been dated to 1465. In 1823 the refectory was found to be in a bad state of repair and moneys allocated for the construction of the new vicarage. Major repairs were carried out to the refectory in the 1950s following the discovery of

deathwatch beetle The deathwatch beetle (''Xestobium rufovillosum'') is a species of woodboring beetle that sometimes infests the structural timbers of old buildings. The adult beetle is brown and measures on average long. Eggs are laid in dark crevices in old w ...

. The two-storey limewashed stone of the vicarage has a tiled

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

and Greek

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

distyle A distyle is a small temple-like structure with two columns. By extension, a distyle can also mean a distyle in antis, the original design of the Greek temple, where two columns are set between two antae. See also *Prostyle *Amphiprostyle *Peris ...

porch. The refectory is supported by

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es and

pantile A pantile is a type of fired roof tile, normally made from clay. It is S-shaped in profile and is single lap, meaning that the end of the tile laps only the course immediately below. Flat tiles normally lap two courses. A pantile-covered roo ...

roofs. The hall and rooms above have original fireplaces and ceilings. The building is now used for church and community functions. In 2016 plans were published for the development of 26 homes on the land belonging to the church. As part of the proposal the vicarage would become a common house providing a communal kitchen and dining room and office space.

References

External links

The refectory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vicarage, Congresbury Houses completed in the 15th century Religious buildings and structures completed in 1446 Grade I listed buildings in North Somerset Clergy houses in England Grade I listed houses in Somerset