'The Old Rectory' is the second-most expensive house name in Britain, according to research that Savills published last year . Sitting behind only 'The Manor House', the 355 Old Rectories that had sold in the preceding years had fetched an average price of £1.3 million.

It's not hard to see why. Many rectories are products of the Georgian and early Victorian age of architecture, with large, beautiful rooms, extensive gardens and charmingly graceful lines. The rectors themselves might be long gone — the church's wealth today being a fraction of what it was in an era when pretty much anyone and everyone attended a weekly service — but the houses they left behind are enormously popular, whether they keep their name or not. When you see a place like Oakley House — on sale with a guide pric

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