Greencroft is a township in the parish of Lanchester, Consett county court district, 1 ¼ miles north-west, 9 northwest from Durham and 15 south-west from Gateshead. Greencroft Hall, 1 ½ miles north of Lanchester, and now unoccupied, is a spacious and elegant mansion, erected by the Claverings in 1670, and commanding fine views of the surrounding country. Little Greencroft Hall, the residence of Edmund Balleny esq. is 3 miles north from Lanchester. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel here. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are the lords of the manor. Baron Montfaucon, Baron de Knyffe and Edmund Balleny esq. are the chief landowners. The soil and subsoil are clay and stone beds. The chief crops are potatoes, oats and grass. The area is 2,368 acres; rateable value, £11,094; the population in 1881 was 1,587.

A School Board was formed August 28, 1875; W. W. Thompson, Lanchester, clerk to the board.

Board School (mixed), built in 1878, for 450 children; average attendance, 370.