Description

Dated 1710. 2 storey and attic, 3 bay, rectangular plan traditional mill house. Random rubble with droved dressings. Vertical quoins; chamfered reveals.

SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: near symmetrical; architraved lugged doorway surmounted with pediment enclosing tooled cartouche dated "1710" to centre of ground floor; 2 leaf boarded timber door. Windows to flanking bays. 3 windows to centre of 1st floor; windows to flanking bays.

NE ELEVATION: slightly asymmetrical; stone roofed ingleneuk to centre of ground with shouldered chimney breast above. Small single pane window to centre at ground, window to left and right returns. Lean to addition to right with corrugated roof and boarded timber door to right return. 2 pane window off centre to left of gablehead.

NW ELEVATION: asymmetrical; 5 bay; small vertical window to centre of ground with 4 pane window to 1st floor above; horizontal paned window to flanking bay to left of ground; traditional replacement windows to flanking bay to right and outer right of ground; window with timber lintel to outer left of ground; window off centre to right of outer right bay of 1st floor. Irregular rooflights.

SW ELEVATION: asymmetrical; 2 bay; 2 pane replacement window with top hopper to bay to left of ground; window to right of ground; regular fenestration to right bay of 1st and attic floors. Moulded eaves course runs along base of stack.

Predominantly 12 pane timber sash and case windows. Graded purple grey slate roof with lead ridge; stone skews with moulded skew putts; tooled, coped gablehead stacks with circular cans. Cast iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: not seen 1998.

OUTBUILDINGS: single storey, single bay, random rubble garage to SW of house; 2 leaf boarded timber door to NE elevation; 20th century timber conservatory addition to NW. Single storey 4 bay outbuilding to SW at end of driveway, in ruins at NW; random rubble with stugged dressings; window to penultimate bay to right, boarded timber doors to remaining bays of NE elevation. Wide opening to SE elevation, with cement lintel. Corrugated iron roof, missing to NW.

GARDEN AND BOUNDARY WALLS: random rubble wall with rubble coping along road to S of house. Random rubble wall with rubble coping to S of drive between garage and row of outbuildings.

Statement of Interest

Set on the banks of the Esk, the Mill House is a remarkably complete and unusual building. The deep skews suggest that it was perhaps originally thatched. The ingleneuk, worthy of mention by MacGibbon and Ross, is another interesting and useful feature. Ingleneuks were common in the 17th and 18th centuries in Scotland, although the earliest known example dates from the 16th century at Lochend House, Restalrig (Lothian). They were usually recessed from a larger room, providing enough space for a warm seating area around the fire, although that in the Mill House is at present blocked up. They may have emerged to decrease the risk of fire, (being an enclosed area away from the main rooms) although it has also been suggested that they were a vernacular version of the medieval kitchen fireplaces of Scottish tower houses. Their large dimensions allowed the fast removal of smoke, with a slow draught which extinguished sparks before they left the tall flue; which was especially important if, as has been suggested above, the building had a thatched roof. Small windows in the back and/or sides provided light (and a view), and the interiors were sometimes also painted white to reflect the light of the fire so sitters could see to spin, sew etc. It would appear that the ingleneuk at the Mill House had another purpose. According to MacGibbon and Ross there was a chute below the window of the ingleneuk which discharged ashes onto the ground which could then be used as fertilser. An article in the Dalkeith Advertiser suggests that the Mill House may originally have been an inn, and also that there could have been an underground passage between it and the manse (see separate listing), however no evidence has been found so far to support this. On the banks of the Esk, to the SE of the Mill House, is the gable of what was presumably the original mill, now in ruins.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17828937

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)