In homage to the creator of the Vicarage, Canon E.B. Sparke, it is only fitting that a room is named after him. Through reviewing what is known of the history of the Vicarage, it seems clear that he never actually spent a night under the roof of the Vicarage, giving that honour to the clergy he gave this living to.
The canon’s room is at the back of the house above the Breakfast/Morning room (formerly the kitchen).
The first three pictures show the completed room
The view is over the mature trees in the back garden and the farmer’s fields beyond. The house was designed before electric became available and so is oriented to wake with the sun. What were the servants room get the early morning sun, whilst this room receives sun from about 8am and through to noon. We have had many people stay who can’t get used to this rhythm. In mid summer the room will become very hot, unless the blind is closed in the morning. In the afternoon, the sun has passed to the living quarters of the house and you open the blind and window and the room will be cool for the evening.
The fitted wardrobe was built with reclaimed wood.
An early photo of the room. You’ll notice it still has the steel security shutter on the window and the board is where one of the panes is missing.
On the floorboards you can see where an old foam backed carpet has been and its backing has stuck to the floorboards.
And of course that other 1970’s/1980s interior design fad of painting everything in the room including the fireplace.
This gives a nice perspective of a Victorian house A fireplace and no electric points. Notice the hearth is a plain lime cement. We found no indication that there were either slate or tile hearths on any of the upstairs bedrooms. Although the building looks imposing, this is another example of build cost cutting.
You’ll see in the completed pictures that we have used fire blacking to colour the hearths to match the slate fireplaces and placed an oak border around the hearth to stop the transmission of he blacking to the floorboards and rugs.
Although we have kept this original fireplace in situ, you can see that the firebrick at the back is worn out after one hundred and sixty years.
As the primary form of heating in this room is now a cast iron radiator, we have cleaned this fireplace and capped it.
After the chimneys were swept, we did a smoke bomb test and then tested each fireplace. Although we could see no smoke emitting, we chose not to trust one hundred and sixty year old lime lined chimney stacks and capped off the majority of them.
I’m pretty sure that the green paint on this fireplace is oil based and not recommended for open fireplaces.
Room back to bare brick and the ceiling down You can see the new roof above it and also the triple glazed velux in the upstairs hall.
The new ensuite stud wall. The door is a modern hollow door. All of the ensuite have the same design of door. At one time I was going to change them for doors to exactly match the other doors in the house. but I have now got used to them
Although this picture is primarily showing the ensuite, to the left you can see the window frame which has been stripped of its architrave to allow the plastering to take place.
The door here is one half of the pair that formed the linen closet on the top landing. We used in this room to create the closet and its twin was used in the yellow room.
The following pictures show the ensuite. The same size ensuite is in all the rooms, that allowed for a one metre shower tray to be installed in each, which is a reasonable size.
Restoration
Renovation
Ensuite added –
Built in wardrobe added – The built in wardrobe was handmade to fit to the end of the new ensuite wall in the bedroom. The door was reused from he upstairs hallway linen closet, when this was removed. Features of this cabinet are a sprung wooden bar on the outside, which allows you to place one or more clothes hangers on it when getting dressed. Inside is a lock box.
Interior design
Companies and trades people used in the commission of the room
The Old Vicarage B&B, Little Ouse 