Claydon Parish

The former rectory of Claydon lies beside the Church of St Peter, which was made redundant in 1977 and now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The rectory became a private residence by 1955 and is best known for its resident incumbent during the second half of the nineteenth century, the Revd George Drury, who was noted for his Anglo-Catholic sentiment and antagonising many of the local population. This culminated in the ‘Akenham Burial Case’ of 1878, the neighbouring parish that was also under George’s care. George built a surviving eccentric walled garden with towers that was said to be a Biblical allegory. Close by was an underground grotto. It is unclear how much of the wider rectory gardens were developed by George, with a gatehouse, the grotto and two viewing mounds probably of a date before his time. In the second half of the twentieth century the old rectory, gardens and walled garden became an office headquarters where a number of nineteenth century trees survive around the gardens, including a fine Cedar of Lebanon.
Not open to the public