The Old Rectory And Screen Wall

NZ 2809-2909 10/36 19.12.51

CROFT-ON-TEES MONKEND (west side) The Old Rectory and attached screen wall (formerly listed as 'Rectory')

GV II

Rectory, now house, and attached screen wall. Early C18, probably with earlier origins, and with later additions. Orange brick, Westmorland slate roofs. Irregular plan of later rear additions, main range of 3 storeys, 5 bays. Central part-glazed door in ashlar architrave set within surround with swept bases, and with consoles supporting dentilled pediment. Sash windows with glazing bars, crown glass, exposed sash boxes, and flat arches of contrasting gauged brick, the second-floor windows of 6 panes. First- and second-floor string courses. Hipped roof. Stacks between second and third bays and at right end. To left, 2-storey lean-to elevation of added side range, with no openings to front. To right: single-storey curving screen wall. Rear elevation: obscured by later service additions. Right return: of same red sandstone as Croft Church (qv) and with blocked sash- window-shaped openings. Interior: windows have shutters; ground-floor doors of 6 fielded panels; early C18 pine open-well staircase with richly-turned balusters and swept handrail; first-floor doors of 6 vertical panels. There are cellars below the right-hand rooms, which may be part of an earlier building. Scratched on the glass of a rear second-floor window are mirror- image graffiti which are thought to have inspired Alice Through the Looking Glass by "Lewis Carroll", whose father, Rev Charles Dodgson, was Rector of Croft 1843-1868.

Listing NGR: NZ2879009849