The Old Rectory

The land immediately to the south of St Nicholas Church was glebe land for centuries, and there has been a property on the site since at least the 16th century. For much of the Tudor and early Stuart period it was owned by the Clarke family, who were, successively, the Crown bailiffs.

 

In 1775 the 3rd Duke of Grafton purchased the property, which was occupied by his land agents.  In 1866 the Reverend Robert Emans Crawley persuaded the 7th Duke to allow him to swap Potterspury's thatched vicarage, which is situated next to the village brook, for the Grafton estate's more sizeable property up the hill. The duke and the vicar (on behalf of the church) agreed to a land swap and the vicar moved up the hill, bringing his bay windows with him.

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The Rectors of Potterspury occupied the building until the Church of England sold it in 1984 and it is now in private ownership. The site of many fetes and village gatherings for much of the 20th century, in the early 1960s, a portion of the first floor was removed as the building was deemed too big for the vicar's needs.