The Old Parsonage, Shackleford Road
The land on which this house stands was bought by the Church Commissioners in 1955 from the Salvation Army (who also owned Shackleford House nearby) in order to build a smaller and more manageable rectory than the existing one and fulfilled that function for 30 years.
When several benefices combined in 1985 the house was sold and became a private residence, later a bed-and-breakfast going by the name of Seven Pines. The garden never contained seven pines; they just looked as if they formed the shape of a figure 7 from the Cyder House, or so the story goes. In December 2000, no longer a bed-and breakfast, the house was known as The Pines and was imaginatively extended and modernised.
In the deeds the property is referred to as a ‘parsonage’, meaning that it was the residence of either a Vicar or a Rector, and when the present owners bought it in July 2007 they decided to give the house a name that was historically appropriate, which is how it came to be called The Old Parsonage.