The Old Vicarage, Hyson Green
Background
The Old Vicarage was originally built as a parsonage house for the vicar
of St Paul's Church, Hyson Green. The church opened in 1844, but the first
vicar, Rev Richard Blakeney, had neither a settled income (there was no
endowment and no pew rents) nor a home. Raising money in Hyson Green was
not easy, but by early 1848 plans were in hand for a vicarage. A bazaar
was held in the Low Pavement Assembly Rooms during January 1848 to raise
money, and more than £300 was collected. This was not enough for work
to begin, and by the time Blakeney resigned in 1852 no progress had been
made.
Before a house could be built land was needed. Lord Middleton had been awarded two closes amounting to about an acre at the time of enclosure in 1799. These had not been developed. In 1853 Blakeney's successor, Rev David Carver, persuaded the Middleton trustees to sell the land to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, on what he described as the best possible terms, for £149. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners also made a grant of £300 towards building costs, and work began. The house was completed in 1855, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners paid over the money in 1856, although they refused Carver's request to provide a supplement because the house was costing more than anticipated. He asked, unsuccessfully, for a further grant in 1859 when money was still owing on the house.
The architect was S.S. Teulon, and the high church Ecclesiologist had mixed feelings about the building:
Mr Teulon has designed a new parsonage, for the district of St Paul’s, Hyson Green, which looks well for a moderate cost. We doubt however the effect of a somewhat Germanizing head which he has given to one of the doors, and must protest against a transom, which occurs in a window with the central portion, arched.
Carver lived in the vicarage until his death, still in office at the age of 80, in 1884. His successor, Rev John Birchall, regarded the house and grounds as inappropriately large for Hyson Green, and when he drew up plans in 1887 for extending St Paul's Church he proposed to raise some of the finance by selling off the large garden fronting the vicarage. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners refused permission.
When St Stephen's Church, Bobbers Mill Road, opened in 1898, the parish of Hyson Green was split. As a result, the vicar of St Stephen's lived on Burford Road, in the parish of St Paul's, while St Paul's vicarage lay within the boundaries of the parish of St Stephen. Birchall was unhappy with this arrangement and he proposed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1898 that they should sell the vicarage and buy land within the parish. Nothing was done immediately but land was obtained and a vicarage built c.1902. Vicars of St Paul's lived in the new house until 1978.
Subsequently the old vicarage was sold into private hands, and for many years it was a doctors' surgery.
John Beckett
(January 2004)
Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812-1873) was born in Greenwich, London. He attended the Royal Academy Schools and commenced in practice as an architect in 1838. He is best known in the Nottingham area as the architect of Bestwood Lodge for the Duke of St. Albans (1862-1865). The under-rated Nottingham architect Richard Charles Sutton (1834-1915) was a pupil in Teulon’s office. (K.B.)
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