Description

17th century to gabled wing; early 19th century main house. 2-storey and attic, 3-bay main house; 2-storey, 3-bay 17th century wing, both rectangular-plan. Painted, droved sandstone (painted rubble to earlier wing) to entrance elevation, exposed to rear elevation. Painted margins to openings.

NW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: central Doric pilastered fluted entrance porch; timber door (additional door to re-entrant angle to left); decorative fanlight; mutuled cornice; plaque to block-pediment; single window aligned above at 1st floor; flanking single windows at ground and 1st floor; canted dormers at outer left and right at attic. 2 single windows at ground and 1st floor (non-aligned) to earlier gablehead section to outer right.

SE (REAR) ELEVATION: 5-bay, grouped 3-2. 2 openings to each bay of 3-bay section to left; glazed timber door to left at ground; adjoining loggia to outer left (see walled garden). 2 openings at ground to gablehead earlier section to outer right; single window at 1st floor to re-entrant angle; low single-storey attached rubble-built ancillary structures to NE.

Predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case windows. Grey slate roof; rooflights; stone skews; corniced gablehead stacks; circular cans.

INTERIOR: fireplaces to rooms include alabaster, timber and composition, and marble examples; pelmets and cornices (many with gold-leaf work). Moulded balusters and timber handrail to main stone staircase. 19th century timber sink and kitchen fittings to 17th century wing.

WALLED GARDEN: garden loggia, 1921 with brick pillars to outer left of SE elevation (see above); plaque within. Urns atop boundary wall enclosing garden. Iron gate to rear of garden leads to outer kitchen garden; attached ancillary structures (see SE elevation ) to NE, garage to S.

GATEPIERS, GATES AND BOUNDARY WALL: square-plan panelled stone gatepiers to central entrance; 2-leaf iron gates; 2-leaf timber gates to outer right of entrance elevation; iron gate to walled garden to SE elevation; timber gate to garden to S elevation; high rubble wall enclosing site (curved to entrance elevation); finely detailed pilastered and pedimented doorpiece to SW wall; timber door with crest above leads to garden at rear.

Statement of Interest

Outstanding detailing throughout, including the two adjacent doors to the elegant entrance porch, providing shelter whichever way the wind blows. Of particular note, are the interior features, especially the fine variety of fireplaces, cornices and pelmets. Some pelmets came from the 18th century town houses in Grosvenor Square, London, to make way for the United States Embassy (Findlay, p34).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17570584

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

• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)