Old Vicarage, Embleton. Photo by Peter Ryder.


The Old Vicarage, Embleton (Copyright © Don Brownlow)

[NU 23052244] Tower. (1)

The tower, incorporated in the vicarage, was built in 1395 and is mentioned as the vicar's property in 1415 (3). It measures externally 19ft 8ins east-west and 40ft 7ins north-south. The battlements are possibly of 16th century date.

It is remarkable for having two vaulted chambers in its basement, the vaults both resting on a partition wall in the centre.

The North chamber, 16'7" N-S by 12'4" has a fireplace, also the remains of a straight mural staircase which has now been blocked up. The S. chamber is 13'8" N-S by 10'6".

There is reason to suppose that the original entrance to the tower was a first floor level, as in the N. wall is a blocked opening.

Judging from the water-tabling the original roof was on a rather higher level than the present one, and the battlements, thin and low, dating possibly from the 16th.c. would be useless for purposes of defence.(2)(3)

The architectural description of this fortified vicarage is correct. See photograph. (4)

Condition unchanged. (5)

The ancient tower incorporated in the modern masonry was built in 1395 and is remarkable for having two vaulted chambers in its basement, the vaults both resting on a partition wall in the centre.
The north chamber, 16ft 7ins north-south by 12ft 4ins has a fireplace, also the remains of a straight mural staircase which has now been blocked up. The south chamber is 13ft 8ins north-south by 10ft 6ins.
There is reason to suppose that the original entrance to the tower was a first floor level, as in the north wall is a blocked opening.
Judging from the water-tabling the original roof was on a rather higher level than the present one, and the battlements, thin and low, dating possibly from the 16th century would be useless for purposes of defence. (6)

Grade II Embleton Vicarage. A vicar's pele of before 1415, added to in 18th to 19th centuries. Square squat stone pele on east, with three storeys of stone-mullioned windows and battlements. Said to contain vaulted ground floor and newel stair. An 18th century addition to the west and a 19th century addition farther west. Front refaced in Tudor style, with pointed arched doorway, an oriel and stone-mullioned and transomed windows. All stone, with tall diagonal clustered chimneys. Glazed conservatory outside the drawing room has a curved roof. West front said to be by Dobson. (7)

The Old Vicarage, Grade I.
Vicarage. Early 14th century house or solar wing reconstructed c.1390 as tower; kitchen wing mid-18th century; major extensions by John Dobson 1828. (8)

The western part of the house is a medieval tower, the section of the house adjoining the tower is partly of 18th century date, but the majority of the building dates from a remodelling c.1828 by John Dobson.
The tower is of unusually elongate plan, measuring 12.4m by 6m externally and is of three storeys with an embattled parapet. The walls of the basement are of rubble, but above this squared sandstone. Externally, the south end of the tower has been largely refaced by Dobson and the large Tudor windows set centrally at first and second floors levels are his; the smaller chamfered openings flanking these openings, square at first floor level and narrower above, may be genuine medieval features.
The east wall of the tower has a central chimney breast, like a broad but shallow buttress. The two- and three-light mullioned windows at basement level are of mid-20th century date, replacing plain openings of the 18th or 19th century. At first floor level are a two-light window, its surround reusing old material, north of the stack and a blocked mullioned window to the south. South again is a small blocked loop which Honeyman suggested may have a trefoiled head, but the stonework is really too eroded to tell. The second floor has a 19th century sash north of the stack and a two-light mullioned window to the south. Above this are a pair of tiny loops immediately below and perhaps truncated by, the projecting course at the base of the parapet.
The north wall is partly and the west wall almost entirely, obscured by adjacent buildings. The former has remains of several earlier openings and the latter a blocked first floor loop near the south end and a chamfered opening that may have been a doorway at the north end, set strangely between basement and first floor levels.
Internally, the basement of the tower is divided into two separate chambers, each with an east-west barrel vault. Since Honeyman wrote a number of secondary partitions have been removed from the southern chamber.
The only access into the basement of the wing is through the west wall of the northern chamber. The present doorway seems to be a mere hole cut through the wall, but immediately within, on the south, is what appears to be the western jamb of an opening in a removed cross wall (with remnants of metal fittings); this is a little difficult to explain as there is an ancient cross wall only a short distance to the south. The jamb rises to a projecting corbel-like feature which is
similarly difficult to explain. The chamber has an old fireplace on the north, with a chamfered square-headed surround set slightly proud of the wall; the outer edge of the projection has a broad hollow chamfer, on either side is a small wall cupboard. The south side of the chamber is divided into two by a short length of wall, projecting at a rather strange angle; at first sight this looks like the remains of an inserted subdivision, but on closer inspection the wall face west of the projecting wall is seen to be set further south than that to the east and the vault is accommodated to both sections. In the western section of wall are two doorways with two-centred arches: the western opens into what is now a cupboard, although its roof of stone lintels stepping upward to the south strongly suggests that it was originally a stair; the eastern archway is back-to-front, ie its chamfered face is to the south, showing that the northern chamber was
entered from the southern, not vice versa.
A section of the vault at the west end of the chamber has been cut away and there is now a timber ceiling at a higher level. This corresponds with the position of what is now a bathroom on the first floor and also to the strange opening set between the floors at the north end of the west wall.
This southern chamber is now cleared of partitions, except for a closet or cupboard on the west. Its walls are largely of brick, although above its doorway and extending south over an adjacent recess, is a segmental stone arch. This, together with an apparent springing of an arch on the south side of the recess, suggests that this was the position of the original entry into the chamber. A recess in the centre of the south wall shows remains of what seems to have been a shouldered rear arch, suggesting that this was an original window or loop, concealed externally by the refacing of the wall.
At first floor level the southern portion of the tower is occupied by an elegant octagonal room with 18th century fittings; a cupboard at the south end of the east wall occupied the recess of a blocked doorway, set directly above the presumed original entry to the basement. The northern portion is divided into two rooms. The western the bathroom mentioned above, in its north wall and only visible from within a toilet set within an added projection, are remains of a 16th or 17th century mullioned window. The eastern room has a small fireplace set beneath a moulded stone string which is probably associated with a larger predecessor, north of this is a timber wall-post of uncertain age, carrying a transverse ceiling beam, then north again, a pair of corbels probably associated with an earlier ceiling. At the east end of the north wall is a small stair (now blocked off at second floor level) starting well above the present floor; the projection to the west of this, which puzzled Honeyman, is the flue of the ground floor fireplace.
The second floor of the tower has corbels at ceiling level all round. Some, especially those on the north side of the southern room, are clearly of plaster and probably of no great age.
The tower is topped by a gabled cap-house with a narrow wall-walk all round. Honeyman's reconstruction of an earlier 'platform roof or fighting deck' here, based on projecting masonry on the north and east walls, may not be justified; the projections may simply mark one of several rebuildings of the parapet. There is a blocked window in the south gable of the cap-house, which must predate a parapet of the present height.
The roof within the cap-house is of five bays, the trusses varying in detail. All have their principals rising to a cruck-like saddle, on which the square-set ridge rests; additional principals at a shallow angle, pegged to the backs of the first, are probably the result of a later remodelling of the roof, for which Honeyman suggests an early 19th century date. (9)

The tower was built shortly after Bannockburn in 1316. Listed by Cathcart King and Dodds. (10a-b)