Parsonages (Shire Library)

From the middle ages to the present day the houses of localclergy – parsonages, vicarages and rectories – have been among themost significant buildings in parishes throughout England.Architecturally some of the best and most fully documented domesticbuildings, their history is that of the small and medium sizedhouse, from medieval vernacular to the bespoke designs of leadingVictorian architects and the more modest homes of today's clergy.The lives lived in the parsonage, factual and fictional (fromAusten to Trollope and the televised struggles of 'Rev' in London'sEast End in the 2010s) reveal not just a building, but a hub ofspiritual and secular activity, at the heart of local life andlinking it to wider, national history. In this engagingintroduction, Kate Tiller brings together the architectural andsocial histories of the parsonage, drawing on the evidence ofbuildings, archival and literary accounts, and contemporary andmodern images, to depict parsonages, their occupants and how theirhistories may be traced.