Building record PRH 071 - The Old Parsonage

The Old Parsonage is an exceptionally intact early-15th century open-hall house adjoining the northern side of the churchyard in Parham. It represents a rare and nationally important medieval priest’s house and shares a number of features with the very few documented examples elsewhere. These include the combination of high-status elements such as crenellated mid-rails at both ends of its hall with the modest proportions normally associated with artisans’ houses; it rises to only 10.5 ft in height, for example, and its in-line parlour and service bays extend to little more 9 ft and 8 ft respectively. Medieval priests were not permitted to marry, and they lacked the large communal households of their parishioners. Most significantly, the timbers of the open hall are smoke-stained but not sooted, and it evidently lacked an open hearth. There is no trace of an original fireplace, with the present high-end chimney clearly inserted in the 16th century along with the hall ceiling, and the house was probably heated by braziers. The 1839 tithe map shows an additional structure against the road that may have been a detached kitchen. The picturesque thatched roof retains its original half-hipped gables at both ends, and the parlour chamber to the east preserves a complete diamond-mullion window above a small lean-to extension added to compensate for the inserted chimney. The building is listed as ‘The Old Parsonary’ but is documented as the former parsonage that was sold by the church in 1848 to fund a new vicarage on the opposite side of Hall Road. It was deemed unfit for occupation even by the curate in 1831. The church belonged in the Middle Ages to the Priory of Augustinian canons (i.e. priests) in Hickling, Norfolk, which appears to have built the house on part of the churchyard. The wills of several 15th and 16th century vicars are held in the Norfolk Record Office, and both archaeological investigation and further documentary research may shed more light on the site’s history (S1).