Primary School And Part Of Presbytery

This is a Roman Catholic chapel, presbytery, and school, built around 1790. It has been altered around 1865 and further modified and extended in the 20th century. The original building is constructed of herringbone-tooled sandstone, with a stone slate roof featuring stone copings and kneelers. Later extensions utilise dressed and re-used sandstone. The original building is rectangular, and the presbytery was originally located at the rear. Subsequent extensions have been added to the front, rear, and left side. The front gable is two-storey with a single window, and a one-storey lean-to extension stands in front. A 20th-century door is set into the extension, and a large mullioned and transomed window is positioned below a tooled lintel above the extension. A canopied niche containing a painted statue sits in the gable apex. A semicircular tablet beneath the canopy is inscribed "ERECTED BY THE GUILD 1890 OF ST HILDA." A square bellcote topped with a shallow ogee cap and stone cross is also present, along with block kneelers. At the rear, a two-storey outbuilding is situated behind a one-storey lean-to extension. The outbuilding has a four-pane sash window with a stone sill and herringbone-tooled lintel on the ground floor, and a 24-pane window with a small central sash, stone sill, and tooled lintel on the first floor. The left return is largely hidden by a later building, but five round-arched openings, four of which are blocked, remain visible; the central opening has been altered to create a doorway with a divided overlight. The right return features five original full-height round-arched windows with tooled sills, small-pane glazing, and Gothick-glazed heads. Inside the front extension is an original six-panel door with two glazed lights. The building is historically significant as an early purpose-built Catholic chapel and school, constructed following the passage of the first Catholic Relief Act in 1778. Egton had a long history of Catholicism in the North-East, with a chapel existing since 1743, and 415 Catholics residing in the district by 1780. After 1867, when the chapel was replaced by a new church, the building functioned solely as a school. The outbuilding at the rear of the school, now integrated into the 19th-century presbytery, originally served as the presbytery itself. It is included for its historical interest.