The Rectory: A Dobson Building?

One of the finest old buildings in the centre of Ponteland is known as The Rectory but its history is a little obscure.

First of all, its name. Normally, you would expect a rectory to house the rector of a parish. This brings us into the difference between a vicar and a rector (and eventually a curate). A rector was a priest who was entitled to all the rents and taxes (tithes) paid on the lands which were allocated to that parish or within the parish. When these rents and tithes were controlled by someone else (usually a local noble or monastery), they could appoint a priest, then called a vicar, who would be paid a stipend by the noble or monastery. Quite often the vicar or rector would be too important or too rich to act as a parish priest. He would then appoint and pay a substitute to carry out his duties, and this would be called a curate.

A rector was generally a person, but it was possible for an organisation such as a charitable institution to be the beneficiary of rents and tithes. Then the institution is said to hold the rectory of the parish. Merton College, Oxford held the rectory of Ponteland from 1303 to 1947. Merton College appointed the vicar of Ponteland, but the vicar was generally an official of Merton College who sometimes would only have a very tenuous connection with Ponteland and would have appointed a curate to perform his parish duties here. There were some vicars however who did move to Ponteland and lived here until their deaths. However between 1778 and 1864 there was no resident vicar in the parish.

So, what was the purpose of this building and why was it called the rectory?

Given that there was a vicarage in the village, the rectory was probably not where the vicar lived. The original vicarage was a house built onto the Vicar’s Pele Tower in the centre of the village but this probably dated to the early 17th century and would not have been suitable for a clergyman with the status of a parish as wealthy as Ponteland. Perhaps the rectory which is generally thought to date from the 18th century was built as a replacement.

There are two possible objections to this theory. The first is that there was no resident vicar at this time and the house looks a little too large to have been enjoyed by a mere curate. The second is that when Ponteland did eventually get a new resident vicar, the Rev. Prescot in 1864, he did not move into the rectory but instead demolished the old vicarage and built a new one just behind it. The rectory must have had some other purpose than housing the parish priest, otherwise the Rev. Prescot would have moved into it.

It looks like the rectory had a mixed use. Merton College may have built it in the 18th century on behalf of its Rectory. The College will have needed a residence for its officials in the area who would have had to collect rents and settle disputes and so forth. It may also have housed clerical officials, including the parish priest, at times when the old vicarage was not fit to live in. By the 1830’s, carrying on throughout the 19th century the college was also renting it out as a desirable country residence when they did not require it. The first census in which the building is named is in 1861 when it is occupied by James Spraggon and his family who was a Registrar. In the same census, there is a curate listed as living at the vicarage.

By the beginning of the 20th century, it seems to have been in use as a boarding house.

A notable resident in more recent years was Miss M. R. Langton who died in the 1990’s. Her father had been vicar of Ponteland from 1895 to 1934. Some older residents speak of Miss Langton having bought the rectory to move back into her childhood home but archive photographs and the census returns show that the family lived in the vicarage when she was young, not the rectory. It was not until 1994, by which time ownership of the rectory had passed to parish, that the building was put up for sale to raise money for a new church hall.

There is also a bit of a mystery as to the age and who the architect of the building was. When the celebrated Newcastle architect John Dobson died in 1865 the building was generally attributed to him and was classed as one of his early works from around 1820. Could it be that the building is not as old as it is generally thought to be and is an overlooked Dobson building?

Before leaving the building, we have to mention the magnificent gate piers which face onto North Road and definitely seem to warrant their early 18th century attribution.