Soham Roots Interactive Website - St Andrews House Soham The Old Vicarage

Saint Andrews House
The Old Vicarage

Click images to enlarge

The image on the left is of Saint Andrews House, at the time of this photo it would have been known as The Vicarage of Soham the residence of the then Vicar, the image was taken from a glass plate negative photo, although no date is given for the photo, by the look of the building it was probably taken not many years after it was built, the church tower can just be seen above the roof of the house, the garden also looking very fresh and newish with a well kept lawn.
Notice the wooden steps in front of the french windows leading down onto the lawn or pathway, also the sunshades above the lower windows, the Church Alley brick wall can just be seen to the left of the house. It must have looked quite magnificent when it was newly built.

The five images shown here are of St Andrews House after much restoration by the developers, and what a good job they have done.
The area of land containing this house and the new ones built in its old gardens has been named St Andrews Park, as shown in the ariel veiw on the right, taken from the tower of the Church

The images below are what it looked like before they started.

St Andrews House the former Vicarage stands South of the Church in its grounds of 1 1/2 acre's the western part of the original Rectory Close. The earliest Vicar recorded in Soham is the Vicar Ranulph, when Hubert de Burgh, Chief Justice of England in August 1102 granted to the Church of St Andrew, in Soham the deeds which he had given to Ranulph the Vicar in trust for the Church. The original Vicarage on the site probably goes back to the 15th century, between 1427 & 1442 William Bogy the then Vicar of Soham left £5 for the repair of his house. In 1674 it is recorded as having five Hearths, and between 1718 & 1731 the Vicar Reginald Hawkins had it enlarged, ( The older part of the house today ). And again in 1834 the Vicar Henry Tasker, M.A., Fellow of Pembroke and Honorary Cannon of Ely built a large extension on to the original house, which became his main living quarters.

The older part or original house becoming the servants quarters, The new extension in 1866 contained two studies, one for receiving parishioners, and a large drawing room, described later as a ballroom, and eight upstairs bedrooms, with front and back stairs and extensive offices. The original cellars under the old house having been altered to hold his 300 dozen bottles of port, claret, sherry and champagne. The new part has a slated roof, the house built of grey-brick and dressed in Ketton stone, the south front is three storeys with eight bays of segmental-headed sash windows with a pediment over the projecting central bays.

The main entrance is by a massive pedimented doorway in its east wall, the money for the alterations being borrowed from Queen Anne's Bounty Fund. The last instalment re-paid shortly before Mr. Taskers death, Mr. Thomas Rickman was the architect, the total cost appears to have been about £3000. The contractors being Messrs. Bell & Sons, some alterations were made from the original plans. By the 1880's to enlarge the gardens he leased part of the rectory site of which he had obtained in 1857, 1 acre from Pembroke in exchange for his 6 1/2 acres near Brook Street, this piece of land was eventually used to provide access from his house to the High Street in 1936. The house was sold in 1954 to Clark & Butcher, a house on Cross Green being purchased for the new Vicarage. St Andrews house had been standing empty for quite a while, being uncared for and left to deteriorate. Being purchased by developers. it has now been renovated and made into flats, and its grounds have been built on for residential use.