Avenue Head Cottages, Traquair House, Traquair, Scottish Borders

Description

1737-8; bears by George Jamieson (or Jamesone), 1745. Pair of rectangular-plan gatepiers surmounted by carved stone bears on plinths, low walls with railings surmounting lead to rectangular wings walls and pair of flanking single storey, L-plan entrance lodges; to SE, further pair of slightly later single storey, rectangular-plan vernacular adjoined cottages. Coursed pale sandstone ashlar gatepiers constructed to resemble brick with Penicuik stone bears; random whinstone rubble low walls and similar wing walls with ashlar margins. Harled cottages with projecting sandstone sills. Later wrought-iron work.

BEAR GATES: pair of high coursed ashlar gatepiers (constructed to resemble brick work) with projecting neck copes and flat caps, each surmounted by slightly later bears proper carrying the Traquair shield carved with the motto JUDGE NOUGHT; low rubble arched walls with 20th century wrought-iron railings (plain railings with spiked, stylised fleur-de-lis and spike with twisted flanking prong heads ? possibly by Thomas Haddon) with central tulip finials; rectangular terminating wing walls to outer flanks with flat copes supporting central ashlar urn (to rear, walls contain segmental-headed recesses originally for seating). Lodges flanking (Number 4 to NE, Number 3 to SE, see below).

AVENUE HEAD COTTAGES:

NUMBERS 1 AND 2 (COTTAGES)

SW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: irregularly fenestrated 9-bay terrace now forming two cottages with entrance doors at 2nd and 7th bay, tripartite windows to 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 8th bays, single windows to 4th and 9th bays (all with slightly projecting sills). Blind gabled ends to terrace terminating in gablehead stacks. Rear elevation similar style to front but with later piended extension (with central bipartite flat-roofed dormer) projecting to right.

Rubble wing wall with pair of hexagonal ashlar gatepiers with low pyramidal caps links terrace to

NUMBER 3 (LODGE)

SW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: L-plan elevation with to right, semi-glazed entrance door in re-entrant angle with narrow window to extreme right; advanced blind end of arm to left with single window in right return. Left return forms 3-bay NW ELEVATION comprising central entrance door flanked by windows. To rear (NE) a near blind elevation with slightly advance piended section to right with one single window. To SE (overlooking entrance drive) end wall with central small window and larger window to right.

NUMBER 4 (LODGE)

SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 3-bay with semi-glazed central entrance door to centre with bipartite window to right and single window to left; left and right returns blind. To rear, window of main house to right with advanced wing to centre and left: window to left with smaller one towards centre and rear entrance door and window to right return. Small single storey, rectangular-plan outhouse to rear.

4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows with horned upper sashes (one smaller window with plate-glass glazing). Pitched slate roof with replacement roll ridging; cast-iron Carron lights to rear. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods. Very short squat harled stacks with single plain cans to gableheads and paired cans to 2 roofline stacks.

INTERIORS: lodges and cottages: modernised and refurbished from 1980 onwards to provide residential accommodation; little original work survives. Seat now removed from niches to rear of wing walls.

Statement of Interest

A-Group with Traquair House, Exedra, Bridge on East Drive, East Lodge, Tea-room, Office, Craft Workshops, Walled Garden, Gardener's Cottage and Summerhouse. Terminating a broad sycamore avenue to the Peebles Road, the formal gateway (locally known as The Steekit Yetts) to Traquair House is flanked by two stone bears surmounting the gatepiers. To the outer flanks of the gateway are single storey lodge buildings, with a further 2 cottage set a little to the south adjacent to the informal drive to the house. The gates, railings, pillars and (former) seats were added during the lifetime of the 4th Earl, but may have been commissioned by his son. The cost of gateway was #12. 15s for the building, #10. 4s for the carving of the bears and 4 gallons of ale for the workmen who erected them. The 7th Earl of Traquair closed the gates in 1796, after the death of his Countess. A more popular story, however, is that they were closed in 1745 as Bonnie Prince Charlie left and were never to be re-opened till a Stuart was on the throne. Sir Walter Scott took inspiration from Traquair and based the gateway of Tully Veolan in Waverley on it, describing it thus "about a mile from the end of the village appeared the enclosures, proudly denominated the parks of Tully-Veolan, being certain square fields surrounded and divided by stone walls 5ft. in height. In the centre of the exterior barrier was the upper gate of the avenue, opening under an archway, battlemented on top, and adorned with 2 large weather-beaten mutilated masses of upright stone, which, if the tradition of the hamlet could be trusted, had once represented, at least had been once designed to represent, two rampant bears, the supporters of the family of Bardwardine." He then describes a tree lined avenue of similar style to that of Traquair. The rectangular wing walls flanking the gateway have arched niches to the avenue side; this is where seats would once have been placed to enjoy the view down to the house. Number 3 Avenuehead is a lodge which has windows aligned to face not only the (closed) formal drive but also the less formal entrance drive in use today. The adjoined cottages are believed to have been reconstructed in their present form at the turn of the 19th century. The flanking lodges and simple row of cottage lining the road form an outstanding group with these gates and are listed because of this and their historical importance.

External Links

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