Bowling Clubhouse, Melville Gardens, Montrose, Montrose, Angus

Entry Name: Bowling Clubhouse, Melville Gardens, Montrose

Listing Name: Melville Bowling Clubhouse Including Boundary Walls, Gatepiers and Railings, Melville Gardens, Montrose

Listing Date: 30 March 1999

Category: C

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 393451

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB46220

Building Class: Cultural

ID on this website: 200393451

Location: Montrose

County: Angus

Town: Montrose

Electoral Ward: Montrose and District

Traditional County: Angus

Tagged with: Architectural structure

Description

1911. Single storey pavilion, roughly square plan bowling pavilion to N of bowling green; open timber veranda to S (principal) elevation. Rendered; narrow moulded cill course. Overhanging eaves. Timber mullions.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 2-step flight to veranda; overhanging eaves supported on slender columns with square capitals, and linked by timber balustrade. Central 2-leaf glazed door and 4-pane fanlight; entrance flanked by quadripartite windows.

E ELEVATION: 6-light window to left, window and door set back to right.

N ELEVATION: canted bay to centre with 2-leaf glazed doors and 16-pane fanlight. Window to left. Door to right.

W ELEVATION: 6-light window to right, 2 windows set back to left.

Single pane lower light, 9-pane upper lights to windows and doors. Grey slate gambrel roof with terracotta ridge tiles and finials.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND RAILINGS: pavilion and bowling greens enclosed by wrought-iron hoop railings on coped stone base with fluted cast-iron corner posts. Cast-iron gatepiers with studded ball tops.

Statement of Interest

Well-detailed early 20th century bowling pavilion, which retains its open timber veranda and distinctive gambrel roof. The cast iron corner posts and gatepiers are by the Montrose Foundry. The building is situated to the southern end of Mid Links. Formerly a golfing area, it was laid out in the 1870s as a string of municipal gardens with sporting facilities. The Melville Bowling Green was opened on 5th June 1878 and the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey map (published 1903) depicts a small rectangular-plan clubhouse, to the north of the green but slightly to the south of the present clubhouse. Bowling was popular at that time and the success of the Melville bowling green led to the laying out of Hope Paton Bowling Green (see separate listing) to the north. Melville Bowling Green is therefore an important part of the town's social history.

Lawn bowls today is a hugely popular sport in Scotland. It has a long and distinguished history with the earliest reference to the game in Scotland appearing in 1469, when James IV played a variation of the game referred to as 'lang bowlis' at St Andrews in Fife. The first public bowling green in Scotland was laid out in 1669 at Haddington, near Edinburgh, however it was not until 1864 that the rules of the modern game were committed to writing by William Mitchell of Glasgow in his Manual of Bowl-Playing. Machine manufactured standard bowls were invented by Thomas Taylor Ltd, also of Glasgow, in 1871 and the Scottish Bowling Association was formed in 1892. The advent of indoor bowling also began in Scotland around 1879. Today there are around 900 clubs in Scotland with an estimated 90,000 active lawn bowls players.

List description updated as part of the sporting buildings thematic study (2012-13).

External Links

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