Description

Circa 1851. 2-storey and basement 3-bay castellated Tudor Gothic with impressive porch villa. Coursed ashlar to principal elevation, squared and snecked tooled sandstone to other elevations. Base course, cill course, chamfered openings, finials to principal elevation gables.

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: near-central single bay gabled section with large porch oversailing basement.

Corniced with blind quatrefoil balustrade with central blank shield above flanked by tall circular angle pinnacles. Pointed arch entrance with pointed arch side openings with pierced quatrefoil balustrade. Flanked by single bay gables with tripartite canted bay castellated sections to ground and 1st floors.

N ELEVATION: single bay gabled section to left, advanced gabled finialed blank section to right.

S ELEVATION: blank, gabled finialed section to left, to right recessed gabled section.

E ELEVATION: off centre doorway with entrance oversailing basement.

Predominantly timber sash and case plate glass windows to W elevation. Predominantly 12-pane lying plane glazing in timber sash and case windows to E elevation. Grey slates. Gable stacks and ridge stacks to N and S elevations. Timber door to principal elevation with pointed arch fanlight and sidelights.

INTERIOR: wide entrance hallway with 2-leaf timber and plate glass hall door with sidelights with wide full-width fanlight above. Decorative cornices filled in to form smooth finish.

Good quality woodwork. Decorative iron banister to staircase. Some original fire surrounds and fireplaces. Basement altered to form separate flat.

GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS: to E, tall square corniced piers with gabled caps. High rubble coped boundary wall runs N to S and E to W. To W rubble gable-coped wall angled to driveway now without gatepiers.

Statement of Interest

Important as part of the beginning of the eastwards expansion of Cupar begun during the prosperity of the mid 19th century and as a distinctive example of Tudor Gothic architecture of the period.

Part of a group of houses constructed on land bought from the County Jail, previously situated to the North.

The feuing plan of 1850 for the strip of land by William Horne ('civil engineer and ordained surveyor') of Cupar shows 9 L-plan houses of which Castlebank is house 'B'. Three principal elevations are shown of 2-storey 3-bay houses, none conforming exactly to the houses actually built. As yet an architect has not been attributed to the houses and it is possible that Horne followed designs from a patternbook.

In the end, 5 houses were built, of which 3 remain. Castlefield and Castlefield Tower (taking up a double feu plot) were demolished in the second half of the 20th century. For the other houses, Castlefield House, 3-5 East Road, and Easterhill, Castlebank Road, see separate list descriptions.

The modern bungalow in the grounds to the W, Cullaloe, is excluded from the listing.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77780929

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

• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)