Description

1934-5. 2-storey gabled Arts and Crafts survival house with single storey extension, in use as residential home for young women. Polished ashlar doorcase with moulded, stepped cornice. White painted harl with contrasting stone surrounds, stone mullions.

S (MAIN) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Projecting 5-bay timber posted entrance porch at centre supporting full-width balcony, tripartite door, 2-leaf panelled outer door; bipartite windows to left and right at 1st floor. Slightly projecting gables to outer left and right with canted quadripartite window at ground and tripartite window with centre door at 1st floor, lined stone semicircle over.

Recessed single storey wing to outer right with partly glazed door to left in re-entrant angle under small flat-roofed projection, 2 windows to right and further door in stepped return; advanced outer right bay with canted quadripartite window under piended roof, taller roof-section behind with small pagoda style pyramidal capping.

N ELEVATION: projecting ogee-roofed turnpike stair to left with small lights at 3 levels, bipartite window immediately to right at ground and 1st floor, 2 windows at ground with 3 windows above and small window below large stair window with prominent wallhead stack to outer right.

Single storey wing to left with part-glazed door to right of centre, window to right and small light to outer right, further window to outer left.

E ELEVATION: large centre stack, stepped at base, with 1st floor window over extension, windows to outer left at ground and 1st floor; 2 windows to extension.

W ELEVATION: door at centre in 7-bay canted entrance with balcony, centre door at 1st floor, adjacent dominant stack to right breaking eaves with elongated S scroll to left and higher eaves line to right with tiny crenellation; narrow window to outer right at both floors, canted window to left at both levels.

Mainly 8- and 12-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and case windows, small-pane glazing pattern in top opening windows to W entrance, ornate astragals and coloured glass to stair window and main door lights. Red tiles and coped ashlar stacks with cans. Ashlar coped skews with moulded skewputts, overhanging eaves and decorative rainwater hopper.

INTERIOR: quarter-turn stair with winders and turned newel post finials; stair window with thick moulded wood astragals, leaded panes and coloured glass, the latter also in lights flanking main door.

GATEPIERS, BOUNDARY WALL AND RAILINGS: ashlar coped random rubble boundary walls with inset cast-iron railings. Coped, rusticated gatepiers with large ball finials.

Statement of Interest

Gilven House is currently in use as a residential home run by the Christian Alliance. It was reputedly built by the owner of a local mining company using 'black-leg' labour during a miner's strike. Valuation Rolls show that the property was built for John Methven, coalmaster. The design bears resemblance to earlier houses by T Duncan Rhind in East Lothian. The design would not have been out of place 30 years earlier.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56617793

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

• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover