The Old Rectory And Screen Wall

The Old Rectory, now a house, and its attached screen wall date from the early 18th century, likely with earlier origins and some later additions. The building is constructed of orange brick and features Westmorland slate roofs. It has an irregular plan due to later rear additions and consists of three storeys with five bays. The central entrance has a part-glazed door set within an ashlar architrave, which is surrounded by a design with swept bases and consoles that support a dentilled pediment. The windows are sash style with glazing bars, made of crown glass, and have exposed sash boxes. They feature flat arches made of contrasting gauged brick, with the second-floor windows having six panes. There are string courses on the first and second floors, and the roof is hipped. Chimney stacks are located between the second and third bays and at the right end of the building.

To the left, there is a two-storey lean-to addition with no openings on the front. To the right, a single-storey curving screen wall is present. The rear elevation is obscured by later service additions. The right return is made of the same red sandstone as Croft Church and has blocked openings shaped like sash windows.

Inside, the windows are fitted with shutters, and the ground-floor doors have six fielded panels. An early 18th-century pine open-well staircase features richly-turned balusters and a swept handrail, while the first-floor doors have six vertical panels. There are cellars beneath the right-hand rooms, which may be part of an earlier building. Notably, scratched on the glass of a rear second-floor window are mirror-image graffiti that are believed to have inspired "Alice Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll, whose father, Rev Charles Dodgson, served as Rector of Croft from 1843 to 1868.