Description

William Gibson of St Quivox, 1822, with additions and alterations, John Murdoch, 1878 and 1895. 2-storey and attic, 3-bay, T-plan, gabled former manse with central curved splayed porch, canted, piend-roofed dormers and single storey piend-roofed rear wing. Rendered stone with polished red sandstone dressings to main part of house; squared, coursed sandstone with polished ashlar dressings to rear wing. Base course; moulded eaves course. Raised quoin strips; regular fenestration with raised ashlar margins.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: flat-roofed porch to principal (S) elevation with plain square pilasters flanking single-leaf timber-panelled door with leaded fanlight above; single windows in curved splayed side walls; cornice and low parapet. Side door to W gable with flanking pilasters and projecting stone canopy. 4-bay rear (N) elevation; irregular fenestration to single-storey rear wing. E elevation with single window and small later single-storey addition towards rear containing third entrance.

12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Ashlar-coped skews. Rendered stone gablehead stacks with later small red clay cans. Grey slate roof; rooflights to front and rear.

INTERIOR: geometric-patterned polychrome floor tiles and decorative ribbed octagonal plaster vaulting to porch, split in two by wall flush with façade containing inner door. Central hall leading to fine curved stone staircase rising through two storeys with plain iron balusters and polished wooden handrail. Bow-ended principal ground-floor rooms with curved timber-panelled doors and later chimneypiece to outer wall flanked by recesses. Timber-panelled doors, working timber shutters and simple cornicing throughout main part of house. Timber-boarded doors and simple timber shelving in pantry and service arease in rear wing.

STABLES: single storey, roughly rectangular-plan, gabled former stable block with arched opening to carriage house in slightly advanced gabled section to centre. Irregular fenestration.

Statement of Interest

A fine, elegant example of an earlier 19th century Classical manse with a little-altered interior, and one of the key buildings in Monkton Village. Plans for a new manse and offices were approved in 1806; the manse was not built at that time, but the 'offices' were, and these may be the existing stables. The mason/architect both at this time and when the manse was finally built in 1822 was William Gibson of St Quivox. The curved internal walls, doors and staircase, and the porch with its delicately detailed interior, are particularly unusual and fine. A splayed porch is shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map, and so this feature is presumably part of the original scheme. The nature of the work carried out in the later 19th century by John Murdoch, an Ayr architect who in the mid-century had worked in a dry Georgian manner but by that time was proficient in both a Bryce-school Scots Baronial and a Queen Anne-inspired Free Renaissance style, is not known.

The New Statistical Account states: 'The manse was built in 1822. The glebe, including the garden and the ground occupied by the manse and offices, is about 8 Scotch acres in extent, and for the last fifteen or sixteen years rented at from L.5 to L.5.5, 5s. per acre. The stipend is 17 childers of victual, half meal, half barley, with L.8, 6s. 8d. as allowance for communion elements.'

The old manse was sold to Scottish Aviation Ltd in 1938. At the time of listing (2007), many of the red sandstone features had suffered from stone erosion, causing the loss of some detailing, and the stables were in poor condition and structurally unsound.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17843627

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

• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)