Dean House

Dean House. . The central part of the house was built in the second half of the 17th Century and the two wings mainly in the 18th Century with numerous alterations since. The East wing is thought to have been a Brewhouse. The stables and coach house date from c.1820 and provided stalls for three horses., At the 1851 census the rector, the Reverend George Master, had five servants and a coachman. In 1911 the Reverend Wells had reduced this to four, a butler, housemaid, cook and kitchenmaid., At the time of the Reverend Percy Dale, who came to West Dean in 1920, the living was one of the richest in the area. The tithe rent charge was valued at £597 with three acres of glebe land valued at £8. With supplementary payments the total net income was £742 plus the house, double the average clerical income. With the replacement of tithes with clergy stipends in 1936 the annual income was much reduced and strict economies had to be made., To help with the cost of keeping the large garden in order the Reverend Dale came to an arrangement with a greengrocer in Salisbury to supply him with the best of its produce and this was dispatched regularly from the Railway Station., The Reverend Eric Rogers, rector from 1948 to 1961, was the last rector to live here prior to his move to the newly built vicarage further up Rectory Hill.