York Historic Environment Record

Formerly known as: No.38 St Maurice's Rectory MONKGATE. House. c1700, altered c1780 and early C19. Brick in Flemish bond. Plain tiled roof.

EXTERIOR: main building symmetrical, of 3 storeys (originally 2 storeys) and 5 bays. The central bay projects slightly and the facade has 2 brick storey bands and a modillioned gutter cornice. The windows are glazing bar sashes with rubbed brick flat arches. The stucco doorcase has rusticated pilasters, a lintel with false voussoirs, and a modillion cornice. The overlight has lozenge-pattern glazing and the door has 6 raised and fielded panels. The gables are coped, with a chimney at the right-hand end of the ridge. To the left there is a 2-storey wing with a pantiled roof behind a parapet. On the ground floor it has an elliptical rubbed brick carriage arch with stone impost blocks and a keystone. Recessed within the opening there is a C20 brick wall with a glazing bar sash window. To the right of the archway there is a glazing bar sash window matching those to the main house, and on the 1st floor there is a similar window in an altered opening.

INTERIOR: RCHM records a fine original staircase with twisted balusters to the lowest flight, and with bulbous turned balusters to upper floors, all with square newels and a moulded and ramped handrail.

HISTORICAL NOTE: in 1798, the house was bought by the Rev. Charles Wellbeloved. In 1803 he became Principal of Manchester College, a dissenting academy which moved to York from Manchester in that year and was accommodated in his house until 1811.

(An Inventory of the Historical Monuments of the City of York: RCHME: Outside the City Walls East of the Ouse: HMSO: 1975-: 89).
Listing NGR: SE6070352343

Derived from English Heritage LB download dated: 22/08/2005

No. 38, was built c. 1700, perhaps for Benjamin West, gentleman, who died in 1711. West also owned two adjoining tenements and all three were let (Deeds). The original house was of two storeys, L-shaped on plan, with a symmetrical five-bay front and finished with a Dutch gable at each end. Subsequent owners included Isaac Johnson, baker, and Joseph Beckett, silkweaver. A contract for the sale of the house and of No. 40 by the widow of John Preston in 1772 mentions two new-built chambers, indicating the building of rooms over the carriageway to the N.E., but these rooms, now part of No. 38, were originally an extension of No. 40; it was probably also Preston who added the third storey in the third quarter of the 18th century. In 1798 the house was bought by the Rev. Charles Wellbeloved, who in 1803 became principal of Manchester College, founded in Manchester in 1786 as a dissenting academy. The college was moved to York in 1803 and accommodated in Wellbeloved's house until 1811 (VCH, York, 449).

It was presumably for the college that the house was enlarged by additions at the back and the extension of the N. room on the ground floor. The present arch to the carriageway is of this date. The newly enlarged N. room was entirely refitted, the fireplace surround and flanking cupboards being decorated by Wolstenholme.

On the street front original sashes with thick glazing bars survive only in the ground-floor windows; the stucco dressing to the surround of the front door is not original. Inside, most of the original staircase remains but the lowest flight was refitted with lighter, twisted balusters before the middle of the 18th century. An enriched fireplace surround of the mid 18th century remains in a room over the carriageway and in two other upper rooms are decorated iron firegrates by Carron, probably c. 1803, set in surrounds of the same date.

An Inventory of the Historical Monuments of the City of York: RCHME: Outside the City Walls East of the Ouse: HMSO: 1975-: 89. Monument 278.

NMR Information

1. MONKGATE (south-east side) 5343

No 38 (Middleton House) (formerly listed as No 38 St Maurice's Rectory)

SE 6052 SE 14/374 14.6.54

II* GV

2.
Circa 1700 and later. Brick; 3 storeys, the upper storey added late C18; 5 sash windows with flat brick arches; the ground storey windows with thick glazing bars only original; centre bay breaks slightly forward; brick string-courses between storeys, rusticated stone pilaster doorcase with lozenge pattern rectangular fanlight and 6-panelled door; heavy modillion eaves cornice; old tiles. Late C18, 2 storey (one window) bay on left-hand side with parapet and carriageway under early C19, 4-centred brick arch. Interior contains staircase and other original features. (RCHM Vol IV, Monument 278).

Sources

List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. City of York, June 1983, p 237

List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. DIstrict of York, 14-MAR-1997

BF060874 MIDDLETON HOUSE, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued.

People and Organisations

Person of historic interest/notable pers Reverend CHARLES WELLBELOVED 1803-1811

RCHME, 1975, RCHME Volume 4, Outside the City Walls East of the Ouse (Monograph). SYO2424.

NMR, 2019, NMR data (Digital archive). SYO2214.