Caynham Glebe

Caynham Glebe - a Building Tale

In the diocesan archives in Herefordshire Archives and Record Centre there are architectural plans, specification and other papers for the building of Caynham Vicarage and the Glebe Farmhouse (now Glebe House) which tell the story of how these two buildings came about in the 1870s.

Welshampton Vicarage

Congreve Selwyn was the illegitimate son of a Ledbury surgeon but with pretensions to grandeur through his father’s well-connected family. He arrived at Caynham vicarage in 1875 as the new incumbent and he certainly didn’t like what he saw. He had previously been vicar of Welshampton in North Shropshire and the move to Caynham would increase his income threefold. However at Welshampton he had enjoyed a vicarage of substantial size built in 1841 with large grounds. In comparison he considered Caynham vicarage to be little better than a cottage which had had several ‘inconveniently arranged additions’. But what he disliked most was the fact that the building housed not just the vicar but also the glebe farm tenant and family with the rooms each occupied being intermixed ‘in a most objectionable manner’. One perhaps would have had sympathy with him. The household of the tenant farmer, Richard Medlicott, consisted of himself, his wife, 8 children and 2 farm workers while Congreve and his wife were childless.

Application was made to the Queens Anne’s Bounty for funds and the diocesan architect, Thomas Nicholson, was engaged. A grand new vicarage was built on the same site with the tenant and family being moved to a new farmhouse with farm buildings across the road. (now Glebe House).The estimated total cost of the two buildings was £2,700 but this was defrayed by over £1,100 by the sale of timber from the glebe land and the reuse of materials from the old vicarage mostly destined for the farmhouse. The contractor was to complete the buildings within 8 months or incur a penalty.

Antique Reclaimed Tiles

Salvaged glazed Godwin Encaustic Tiles

The reused building materials consisted of bricks, roof and floor tiles, floorboards, roof timbers, fireplaces, kitchen ranges, grates and 16 doors (10 of which are still extant in Glebe House). Much of the new material was sourced locally; Knowbury bricks and roof tiles and best quality Shropshire floor tiles for the domestic areas were to be used but other materials were sourced from elsewhere. The moulded bricks and 3 feet high chimney pots, a feature of both houses, were provided by Colthurst, Symonds & Co of Bridgwater, Somerset and superior floor tiles for the halls and hearths of the vicarage came from Godwins of Lugwardine. Godwins was a very prosperous firm making medieval style tiles much favoured by the church architects George Gilbert Scott and G E Street. Fireplaces were to be reused and placed throughout the farmhouse and in vicarage bedrooms while all new fireplaces were to be sourced in Hereford or Birmingham.

Henry Moule's Earth Closet - Improved Version

All the ironmongery was to be supplied by Young & Glover of Wolverhampton while the metal casements windows used in the farmhouse were supplied by a Westminster firm, Burt and Polls. Both houses were provided with large capacity built in ovens described of 3 or 4 peck capacity to be properly domed plastered and paved. Each had a cast iron boiler with an enclosed furnace below. One of 30 gallon size for the vicarage and 50 gallons for the farmhouse. Modern conveniences were provided with the vicarage enjoying a fully plumbed Bramah water closet while the farmhouse was provided with the recently patented ‘Moules Self Acting Cottage Appurtenances Complete’ earth closet invented by a Hampshire vicar. Two additional earth closets were built in the back yard of the vicarage.

Lastly the vicarage was supplied with a bell call system for summoning the servants when required. The bells were to be of varying tones, painted and numbered attached by copper wires in zinc tubes chased into the plaster. The main rooms had rosewood levered pulls supplied by Dovey of Dalton Street Manchester while the rest had bell ropes. Finally the entrance was to have ‘a massive bronze brass pull’.

Congreve Selwyn enjoyed the new vicarage for only a short while moving on to a new parish in London just 4 years later. While he prioritised his own comfort it would seem that he was less mindful of that of his parishioners. When the new incumbent, John Ross, arrived he found that the church was so out of repair that services were being held in the school and immediately set about the task of employing an architect to restore the church.

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