Cumrue Farmhouse, near Templand, Annandale North, Dumfries and Galloway

Description

An early 19th century two-storey three-bay symmetrical farmhouse built to the front (south) of an earlier similar house, doubling its depth. To the rear (north) of the house is a farm steading comprising a series of rectangular-plan barns, byres and sheds arranged around an open courtyard, with an 1827 cartshed at the southwest corner and a horsemill at the northeast corner.

The house is built in rubble stone and painted, with contrasting smooth and painted window and door margins. The south elevation has painted ashlar corner margins. The openings in the north elevation are irregular and there are two single storey outshots at each corner, each with a monopitch slate roof. The windows are predominantly plate glass in timber sash and case frames. The roofs have grey slates and straight stone skews. There are wallhead chimney stacks. Those to south part of the house are ashlar and coped, those to the earlier rear part of the house appear to have been rebuilt and are rendered. At the centre of the front elevation is a late 20th century, single-storey porch with a piended, slate roof.

The interior was seen in 2018. The entrance hall has a shallow arch with scrolled consoles. The ground floor, southwest room has a basket-arched buffet niche in its north wall. The walls of this room have a mural of hunting scenes, signed by Karl Ruckgauer of Mainz, and dated 1946. Most rooms have plain moulded cornicing and panelled timber window shutters. The doors are predominantly four or six-panel timber with moulded architraves.

The steading buildings are rubble built with tooled stone around the openings and have slate roofs. There are a variety of 20th century later additions and alterations. At the southwest corner is a cartshed with a barn above built 1827 by C. Halliday, contractor. The south elevation has eight arcaded segmental arched openings. That to the left (west) is a narrower arch with a later door, behind which are stairs to the upper floor. At the northeast corner is a circular horsemill. This has a timber beam roof structure and central timber shaft, but no machinery was seen (2018).

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: all 20th century and later additions to the steading and separate ancillary buildings.

Statement of Interest

Cumrue is a typical example of a farmhouse and steading associated with farms in Dumfries and Galloway in the early 19th century and is notable for the extent of survival of the grouping of buildings and for its size. The farmhouse largely remains in the form when the front part was added, retaining its well-proportioned classically styled and symmetrical principal elevation. The survival of the steading adds to the interest, particularly the horsemill and the cartshed. The distinctive arcaded cartshed is largely unaltered and its scale indicates that this was a large farm in the area. A surviving amateur mural painted by a German prisoner of war, which was added to the dining room of the farmhouse is also of social-historical interest.

Age and Rarity

Cumrue farmhouse and associated steading are believed to date to around 1827, but may incorporate or reuse earlier farm buildings, likely from the 18th century.

The courtyard layout of the steading with a separate farmhouse facing south is indicative of farm design of the late 18th century/early 19th century improvement period. Cumrue Farm is shown on Roy's Military map of 1752-55 and the previous listed building record, written in 1971, notes that the south part of the house, was built on an earlier similar house, doubling its depth.

In the 19th century Cumrue Farm was owned by the Duke of Buccleuch. The New Statistical Account of 1845, mentions that since 1822 the Duke had made substantial improvements to his land, notably by building excellent and elegant farm steadings (p.73). Some of these were designed by the Duke's architect, Walter Newall. He supplied a number of his designs to J C Loudon for his publication Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture, first published in 1835. This became one of the most well-known books of this period with guidance on how to design and plan a farm in this improvement period. Typically farm buildings were built in stone and were more usually arranged in a courtyard layout, and later with the farmhouse detached from the rest of the steading.

There is no evidence to indicate that Newall, an eminent Scottish architect of the period, was directly involved in the design of Cumrue, but elements of its design may have been influenced by his work on the Duke's estate. It is known that work was carried out at Cumrue Farm after 1822. The previous listed building record, written in 1971, references a Register of Entailed Estates (held at the National Records of Scotland) which gives the date of the steading as 1827, and it was built by the contractor C. Halliday. This source has not been consulted as part of the review. The reworking and extending of the farmhouse may have occurred at the same time.

The late 18th and early 19th century was a period of significant improvement in farming practices across Scotland, and many farmhouses and associated agricultural buildings were constructed in this period. From the mid-18th century agriculture in Scotland was transformed as subsistence farming gave way to the creation of larger farms. Drainage, use of lime as a fertiliser and improved understanding of husbandry all contributed to this and land was enclosed into fields and very small landholdings were merged into larger farms.

The southwest of Scotland was a particularly rich agricultural area. By the 1760s the farming system in southwest Scotland was dominated by the need to provide southern markets with store cattle and therefore oats were grown as the main subsistent crop. Cumrue Farm is in Kirkmichael parish, which because of its relative flatness and dryness was one of the best grain-growing parishes. This is reflected in the scale of the parish's farm steadings and in the number of cottage rows provided for farm servants. The New Statistical Account, written in 1845, records that at that time the greatest gross amount of produce in the parish was 1350 acres of oats and 1650 cattle grazed.

The General View of the Agriculture of the County of Dumfries (written in 1812) stated there was a need for good farmhouses with suitable offices (or steadings) in order to attract incoming tenant farmers (Glendinning et al, p.43). Surviving farms from this period are therefore an important part of the area's agricultural history.

After the building of roads, carts were indispensible pieces of equipment at farms, replacing packhorses and sledges, as a more efficient method of transporting goods to local markets. Sheds were needed to protect them from the weather. Often with graneries above they were a late 18th century innovation which spread across Scotland by the 1820s and 1830s. The scale of the stables or cartsheds was proportionate to the scale of the farm, as one bay approximated to 20 -32ha of arable farmland.(Glendinning and Wade Martins, p.106). The cartshed at Cumrue farm has seven cartshed openings, showing that Cumrue was a very large farm.

At the northeast corner of the steading is a circular horsemill. After the invention of the threshing machine by Andrew Meikle in East Linton in 1787, threshing machines started to replace less efficient hand threshing practices at larger farms by 1800. The counties of East Lothian, Perthshire and Dumfries and Galloway in particular would have been at the forefront of this technological development. These machines were powered in a variety of ways including wind, water and horse. Four to six horses would be tethered to the ends of long beams and walked in a circular path, turning the axis to power the machine. These machines were contained within barns which were of oblong or circular shapes. By the 1850s most horse mills were rapidly converted to steam powered machines. Only a handful of horse mills survived after this date, mostly on the smaller farms or crofts. In Dumfries and Galloway there are around 30 other listed examples which survive as part of a steading complex and their survival is now rare across Scotland. Most of these structures no longer have their machinery.

All buildings erected before 1840 which are of notable quality and survive predominantly in their original form have a strong case for consideration for listing. While farmhouses are not a rare building type, those associated with the introduction of early and improving farming practice (from roughly mid 18th to the mid 19th centuries), which demonstrate quality of design and construction and which remain to a greater or lesser degree in their original form may have interest in listing terms.

Farmhouses with associated steadings are a particularly distinctive building type in Dumfries and Galloway. This area of Scotland saw vast improvements in farming in the early 19th century and agriculture was central to the economy in this part of the country. The survival of farmhouses with associated ancillary buildings are an important part of the area's built heritage, demonstrating its agricultural and social history.

Cumrue Farm is a notable surviving example of an improvement period farmhouse and steading complex which is especially characteristic of this part of Scotland. It is of special interest for the level of survival of its early 19th century group of buildings, including an unusually large cartshed, which is largely unaltered, and the rare surviving circular horsemill. The house and the steading has been altered and its immediate setting has changed by later development, but the early 19th century layout and design can still be seen and its former use can still be understood.

Architectural or Historic Interest

Interior

The interior of the farmhouse has some decorative details, such as the archway in the entrance hall and the wide buffet niche in the former dining room, as well as retaining timber doors and window shutters. These features are of some quality for this building type and add to its case for listing.

On the walls of the dining room is a hunting scene mural. This is signed by Ruckgauer of Mainz and dated 1946. Little is known about Ruckgauer or if he produced other work in Scotland or in Mainz. The previous listed building record notes that he was was a prisoner of war held at the former Kirkmichael House (now the Barony, part of the Agricultural College, listed at B, LB10418) nearby. As it took time for prisoners of war to be repatriated and some chose to stay the date of 1946 is not unusual.

Prisoners of war would often create artworks in their spare time, and this may be sold or gifted to locals as repayment for being treated well. The art ranged from music, to carvings and paintings and even buildings (such as the Italian Chapel on Orkney and the Ukrainian Chapel at Hallmuir, near Lockerbie).

The people portrayed in the hunting scene at Cumrue Farmhouse are understood to be local individuals, including a previous owner of Cumrue Farm (owner, 2019). The level of artistic interest can be described as naïve art and is characteristic of art by prisoners of war. The murals are therefore of some social and historical interest for their association with Scotland's homefront role during the Second World War.

The interior of the steading is plain with no historic agricultural fixtures and fittings. There are some long feeding troughs in the north range of the steading.

Plan form

The plan form seen at Cumrue Farm comprises steading buildings arranged around an open courtyard and a detached farmhouse facing south. This arrangement typifies the emerging formal arrangements of improvement farms of the late 18th century. A compact plan of barn, byres, stables and storage sheds arranged around a court was for efficiency.

The large farmhouse is detached from the steading and the principal elevation of the farmhouse is crucially turned away from it. This reflects the social status of a farmer in early 19th century century, with the farmer having a level of detachment from the work of the farm itself. The scale of the house shows the prosperity of the farm at an early stage, before the price of grain took off in mid-19th century.

The footprint of the farm buildings are first shown in detail on McCallum and Dundas' Plan of 1854. On this map the circular horsemill is depicted. A variety of additions have been built to the west, north and east side of the steading, but the 19th century footprint can still be seen today.

With the exception of the porch addition the footprint of the house remains largely unchanged from that shown on the 1854 plan and later Ordnance Survey maps.

Whilst the plan form of the house and steading does not demonstrate innovation in its building type, the loss of component parts of a 19th century farm steading is not unusual. The level of survival of the group comprising the house and the 19th century rectangular plan steading is of particular interest here.

Technological excellence or innovation, material or design quality

The house is architecturally plain and is built in a well-proportioned, restrained classical style. The building retains the symmetry of its principal elevation, including original openings that are widely spaced apart, an uninterrupted roofline and raised corner and window margins. The wide, two-storey, three-bay, pitched roof arrangement is typical of farmhouse from the improvement period of farming. The farmhouse is relatively large, indicating the scale of the farm in the 19th century, and the older rear portion shows the history and development of the farm.

The front elevation has been altered by the addition of a porch. The scale of this porch means it is quite an imposing feature. However, it does not adversely affect the character of the house, as the original proportions, symmetry and openings of the front elevation are still obvious.

The cartshed and circular horsemill are very distinctive components of late 18th and early 19th farm steadings prior to mechanisation and automation in farming developed in the 19th century. The cartshed has design quality because of its arcading and the tooled stonework of the arches, and appears to be largely unaltered. The design of cart bays varies between regions and those in southeast Scotland are typically stone columns and arches, as can be seen at Cumrue. The horsemill retains a significant proportion of its fabric, including its distinctive conical roof structure supported on timber beams radiating from a central post, showing its original use, even though the machinery has been removed.

The rest of the farm steading is plain, lacking distinguishing architectural details and has been altered by the addition of openings, replacement of some slate roofs with corrugated material and the loss of interior fixtures and fittings.

Setting

Cumrue Farm is located on raised ground and because of the scale of the farmhouse and the steading it is a prominent building in the landscape. Large agricultural sheds have been built to the north and west of the farm, but this have not adversely affected the setting of the listed buildings to the extent that the 19th century layout of the farm (in particular as seen on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey maps) can no longer be seen. The connection between the farmhouse and the steading is unaffected by the later buildings.

To the northwest of the farm is a very long row of farm labourers cottages, which was built for Cumrue Farm. This is described as one of the longest rows of farm labourers cottages in Scotland (RIAS Guide, p.43) and its size indicates the scale of this farm in the 19th century. These cottages are not listed and have not been assessed as part of the listing review of Cumrue farm in 2018.

Regional variations

Agriculture was, and continues to be, an important part of the economy of Dumfries and Galloway. Cumrue Farmhouse is a good survival of a style and form that is typical to of historic farmhouses in this area.

Close Historical Associations

There are no known associations with a person or event of national importance at present (2019).

Statutory address, category of listing changed from B to C and listed building record revised in 2019. Previously listed as 'Cumrue Farmhouse and Former Cartshed/Barn'.

External Links

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