Description

Begun 1858, in the manner of Burn and Bryce; tower and ancillary buildings circa 1862. 1?-2 storey, multi-bayed, near square-plan manorial-style house with Scottish Jacobean details, similarly styled single storey service wing asymmetrically set to rear; coach house and water tower adjoining house with free-standing former stable block to north. Pale sandstone ashlar facings to rubble whinstone walls with harled whinstone rubble service wing and rear elevation. Base, band and eaves courses. Canted and squared bay windows with low moulded parapets. Gabled and pedimented wallhead dormers with ball and

stalk finials. Earlier rubble courtyard steading complex and cottage to west.

MAIN HOUSE AND SERVICE WING:

N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: advanced gable to left containing projecting moulded door surround rising into stepped pediment with blind shield and corniced eaves, bipartite window to right with central bipartite window to 1st floor; single window to ground floor of left return lighting hall. To right of entrance: squared bay window with 4 lights; pair of asymmetrically placed stone wallhead dormers to 1st floor with moulded pediments and ball and stalk finials. Single storey coach house (see below) adjoins to right return with bipartite window to gable of main house above.

E (GARDEN) ELEVATION: similarly styled, reversed plan of N elevation; advanced gabled bay to right with 3-light squared bay window to ground floor and bipartite window to 1st floor; canted bay window of drawing room to ground floor left (3 central lights with single light to flanks) with later piended roof, pair of 1st floor dormer windows with pediments breaking eaves above. To gabled left return, central moulded door surround (timber door with glazed upper panel) with steps leading to garden, central bipartite window to 1st floor. Recessed bay to left with small window to ground floor (denoting below stairs) and large bipartite to 1st floor lighting staircase. Service wing adjoins to left via irregular 2-storey, 2-bay link.

S (SERVICE) ELEVATION: 1?, 3-bay section to right (formerly kitchens to ground floor with nurseries above) comprising central door accessed by later stairs, bipartite window to right and single window to left, 3 regularly placed stone pedimented dormers to ?-storey; to right return, gabled end with central window to ground and 1st floor. To left, further advanced gabled bay with central window at both storeys. Later advanced single storey flat link to far left joins service wing to steading.

W (COURTYARD) ELEVATION: N and W facing L-plan courtyard formed by irregularly fenestrated rears of main house and service wing; long later single storey piend-roofed porch in re-entrant angle.

Plate glass glazing to principal ground floor rooms; 8 and 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows to 1st floor and rear of main house and service wing. Pitched Scotch slate roof with lead ridging; plain and moulded skew gables with scrolled and kneeler putts. Painted cast iron rainwater goods with some dated hoppers; gutters cutting across some dormers. Tall coursed ashlar roofline stacks, projecting ashlar neck copes and elaborate cans; gablehead and wallhead stacks (of similar design) to office/service wing but with plain cans.

INTERIOR: encaustic tiled floor to entrance vestibule; original timber panelled doors with original hinges and door furniture; timber skirting boards and oak shutters to principle rooms (drawing room shutters and doors with walnut paint effect and floral fittings including door furniture and bell push); some curtain poles extant. Elaborate decorative plaster ceilings to hall, dining room, study and drawing room; all with elaborate ceiling roses. Marble fire surrounds to principal rooms, most with original over- mantle mirrors; some later fire surrounds to 1st floor bedrooms. Timber staircase with carved octagonal newel post to hall (squared newels to 1st floor) turned balusters. Cellars including and one vaulted cellar and a wine cellar will slabbed shelves, remnants of service stair adjacent.

COACH HOUSE AND WATER TOWER: single storey coach house adjoining W gable of main house with bipartite leaded windows of diamond quarry to N elevation and 2-leaf arched timber doors to W. 2-storey, square-plan water tower rising to NW with leaded bipartite window to ground floor of E elevation, entrance door to N and small lean-to to W; upper storey contains arched-top ventilation louvres with hoodmoulds, bracketed eaves roof

course leads to slated pyramidal with bellcast eaves (slating with band of fish scale detail and emblem of card suite to each face, see NOTES)

FORMER STABLES: 2-storey gable-ended stable with arched entrance in SW elevation; recessed wall within containing central clock with pair of semi-circular windows to flanks, windows flank main elevation to ground floor with pair of stone pedimented wallhead dormers to 1st floor, rest of elevation near blind. Grand hoodmoulded entrance doorway adjoins left of formal SE finialled gable end (ashlar with hoodmoulded bipartite window to each floor) and links elevation to water tower. NE elevation near blind save for ventilation slits but advanced gable near centre contains window at each floor, cart arch with 2-leaf timber gates projects from right to

(beyond gable) and conceals further windows and plainer SW gabled end with paired windows ground floor and single window to1st floor.

LODGE: fairly simple single storey, T-plan piend-roofed lodge(with later harled extension in SW re-entrant angle). 3-bay entrance elevation to NE with central door and overhanging piended porch roof (supports currently missing), lying-pane glazed windows to flanks; window to each return. Central stack with pair of plain cans.

GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALL: low curved ashlar walls with flat copes with chamfered angles surmounting, leading to pair of tall octagonal ashlar gatepiers (flanking driveway) with flat caps and banded mouldings, identical piers mark end of formal wall; higher whinstone rubble wall denotes west boundary between lodge and steading.

STEADING AND STEADING COTTAGE: late 18th / early 19th century complex of whinstone farm buildings with stone dressings and pitched slate roofs, all buildings with early rooflights, timber boarded doors and ventilators. Comprising single storey F-plan whinstone range to west with long blind outer elevation partially inset into bank and cart aches to courtyard elevation; irregularly fenestrated byre (still in use) forms middle arm (less intact to SW); 1? -storey, 3-bay steading cottage adjoining to N and facing into courtyard and partially occupying west range. L-plan east range comprises cart shed, byre and mill building (decorative wrought-iron weather vane with cockerel surmounting central gable) hayloft openings and timber doors. Further attached byre and hayloft to SW adjoins service wing to SE via single storey, semi-harled whinstone link.

Statement of Interest

This is a good example of a small Borders estate. Sited outside Kirk Yetholm, the estate takes its name from its proximity to the nearby loch, now a nature reserve. It is believed the lands formed part of the Wauchope estate. Originally a farm steading, the early farmhouse was cleared to make way for the grander house we see today. This fine house is in the style of Burn and Bryce; the layout of the principal ground floor rooms strongly suggests a Bryce-style interior, as does the opulent decorative treatment of the plasterwork in these rooms. The owner at the time of its construction was Robert Oliver whose descendants still own the property. The house is similar to Anton's Hill by William Burn, but the gables here are less steeply pitched. Many large similarly styled farmhouses were built in the middle of the 19th century to accommodate the sons of the landowners; their architect being James Cunningham, a Factor to many of the local estates. Trained as an engineer, it is believed he is responsible for many farmhouses (and some schools) in Roxburghshire, Berwickshire and Northumberland. Although this house is built to replace a farmhouse and may be by Cunningham, it is designed to be a gentleman's residence, with the working part of the farm well hidden from view behind grand entrances. The house even has its own drive, guarded by a lodge; any agricultural traffic accesses the farm steading by a completely separate entrance, well away from the formal entrance. Sir Walter Scott's book Guy Mannering makes mention of Lochside, before the main house existed. One of his characters (Meg Merrilees) was based on a formidable gypsy lady by the name of Jean Gordon who lived in nearby Kirk Yetholm. Scott tells how his father remembered Jean Gordon often receiving hospitality at the farmhouse of Lochside and in return carefully abstained from committing any depredations on the property. Her nine sons were not so respectful and stole a brood-sow from the steading. So ashamed was she, she absented herself from Lochside for several years. The well-preserved steading at Lochside is indeed earlier than the house and contains some fine features including a mill building, a wing with cart arches, a grooms' cottage built with materials from the now lost farmhouse and a garden wall which contains an elaborate arched doorway from Clifton Park (see below). The buildings are all slate roofed and some contain ridge ventilators; the mill building is interesting as it retains its weather vane. The free-standing building in the centre of the complex, which now houses the billiard room, contains a large slate slab which may cover an old well. The listing covers all farm buildings between the house and the road. The slightly later water tower is particularly impressive and it takes its inspiration from a much larger tower to be found on the now ruinous Clifton Park (Linton Parish). The then owners of these two houses were great friends and played together in the Kelso Whist Club. As a tribute to this, each face of the slated water tower roof at Lochside incorporates a playing card suite; a heart to the west, a diamond to the south, a spade to the east and a club to the north. Internally, the tower contains an Edwardian cloakroom complete with water closet and hand basin. The stable block has been converted into holiday accommodation but still retains historic character, including a pair of columns from the former gallery of Yetholm Church incorporated into the staircase. There is also a pair of timber boathouses (dating from 1913) adjacent to the west side of the loch and a glasshouse near the steading cottage. The listing recognises Lochside as a fine example of an intact mid-19th century country estate with surviving earlier farm steading.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17844461

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

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  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
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  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
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  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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