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.