Description

Predominantly late 18th century, with later additions. Classical, symmetrical U-plan former stables with later infill forming quadrangular courtyard; later 19th century adjoining implement sheds; large adjoining 18th century walled garden to NW with later 19th century integral gardener?s cottage; adjacent mid 19th century farmhouse with later 19th century adjoining former dairy and byre. Coursed whinstone; droved sandstone margins. Former stables in poor condition (2003).

STABLES: central round-arched pend to SW with crowstepped gable above; gable doocot with Venetian window, blind side lights and central pigeon ports (approximately 120 nesting boxes); stone above inscribed 'JF 1843? (see Notes). Flanking wings with 2 windows to ground, smaller blind openings with slit vents above; range to R minus pitched roof. Later single storey bothy range to rear with square, brick clock tower (previously harled). Segmental and flat-arched openings to ranges; oculi; forestair to grooms? accommodation, catslide detail to doorways inside courtyard; former tack room below. Granaries and haylofts to upper floors. Later long range to R; large opening with relieving arch to L; paired segmental- arched openings to R with further flat-arched opening to outer R; 2 smaller windows above; small circular vents below moulded eaves cornice. Inner courtyard paved with setts and bricks. Grey slates to piended roofs; some areas replaced with corrugated iron; some brick stacks.

FARMHOUSE: probably circa 1843. 3-bay, 2-storey piend-roofed house; raised window and angle margins. UPVC windows replacing timber sash and case plate glass glazing (originally probably 12-pane). Interior not seen (2003). Former dairy to L; byre adjoining at right angles. Whinstone with ashlar margins.

WALLED GARDEN: rectangular, approximately 120m x 70m, adjoining stables with tall, coped sandstone rubble walls. NE end shaped and stepped. Some areas ruinous.

GARDENER?S COTTAGE: 3 bays, 2 storeys; segmental-headed windows. Porch with flanking windows; 1st floor windows breaking overhanging, bracketed eaves. Whinstone; sandstone margins. Timber sash and case 12-pane glazing (good later 20th century replacements). Slate roof; end stacks. Cast iron rainwater goods.

Statement of Interest

Newfield Mains accompanied Newfield House (demolished 1964) thought to have been built by Captain Nugent, circa 1725. In 1783 Major Crawfurd, an Ayrshire man who made his fortune in India, purchased the estate. It is likely the walled garden is 18th century and that the stables were built when Crawfurd?s eldest son inherited the house in 1794. The date stone of 1843 probably inserted in the gable signifies the sale of the estate to James Finnie, one of the family of wealthy coal owners in Ayrshire. Newfield House was extended in the later 19th century in a French Baronial style.

The stables are a good example of their type though now in poor condition (2003). The arrangement is formal and practical, typical of the improvement era in farming that began in the mid 18th century, and was designed to incorporate cartsheds, stables for as many as twenty Clydesdale horses, barn and threshing barn, hayloft and

granary, grooms? and farmworkers? accommodation. A circular horse-engine house once stood to the south east. A doocot is incorporated over the entrance pend which, by the mid to late 18th century, was a more common type than the freestanding larger doocots of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Doocots remained fashionable long after they ceased to be a necessary requirement for food but by the 19th century were becoming less so (Robinson p106). The walled garden is particularly large and served as a market garden for the estate and surrounding farms with as many as 36 gardeners employed at one time. The coursed whinstone construction of the buildings is of good quality and would originally have been harled up to the dressed sandstone margins. The stone was quarried at the nearby Hillhouse quarry. Newfield Mains is all that remains of this once grand estate.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77780178

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.

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