Description

F T Pilkington, dated 1858. Linked pair of semi-detached, 2-storey and attic crowstepped, Free Gothic detailed houses. Stugged ashlar with polychrome detail and long and short quoins; raked base course, band courses, dentilled eaves cornice, mutuled windowhead cornices; architraved surrounds, pointed arch, tri-lobed and shouldered openings, continuous polychrome hoodmould, stone mullions and chamfered arrises.

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: No 6: recessed 2-storey entrance porch to left with wide timber door and plate glass fanlight in tri-lobed opening with flanking square columns and diamond detail capitals, diamond frieze above with window at 1st floor below chevron frieze. Advanced face (adjoining No 7 to right), with bipartite window at ground to left of centre with pointed windowheads, relieving arch detail and colonnette mullion with moulded base and capital with cross decoration; pointed window above at 1st floor and further crowstepped dormer window breaking eaves above. Corbelled angled oriel to left corner at 1st floor with 2-stage turret roof.

No 7 (adjoining No 6 to left): advanced bay to right of centre to both floors with bipartite window at ground and quadripartite window at 1st floor, both with narrow glazed returns, capital moulding to ground floor replaced mullion with flower carving, 1st floor mullions polychrome; pointed window above in crowstepped gable.

Nos 7 and 8: recessed linked entrance to right, granite column at centre with pointed-arch openings springing from foliate capital with date plaque above; deep-set timber doors with glazed fanlights; tri-lobed bipartite window at 1st floor with colonnette mullion and chevron frieze.

No 8 (adjoining No 9 to right); Piended shallow bow window to left of centre, 4-leaf at ground and 5-leaf above, colonnette mullions with moulded bases and decorative capitals to both floors. Crowstepped dormer window breaking eaves above.

No 9 (adjoining No 8 to left): 2 pointed windows at ground flanking dominant moulded console of corbelled 5-leaf oriel window at 1st floor, with colonnette mullions and decorated capitals; round-headed window above in crowstepped gable. Recessed entrance porch to right, granite column (as above) at centre, deep-set timber door with 8-leaf fanlight to left, blocked to right; tri-lobed bipartite window above with colonnette mullion and chevron frieze.

E ELEVATION: adjoining boundary wall on ground sloping to N. Ogee window at near-centre of ground floor (see Notes).

N ELEVATION: Nos 6 and 7: bipartite window to left, timber door with 2-leaf letterbox fanlight to right and further window to outer right over small basement window, steps up to wide timber door with plate glass fanlight in recessed entrance to right; 2 windows at 1st floor below lean-to dormer window to left and pitch-roofed dormer window to right. No 7 mirrors No 6.

Nos 7 and 8 recessed link: single wide arched opening with paired timber door below bipartite window.

Nos 8 and 9 repeat Nos 6 and 7 with the recessed entrance to No 9 converted to single part-glazed door and window (see Notes).

3-, 4-, 6- and 12-pane, and plate glass glazing in timber sash and case windows; leaded and coloured design in ogee window to E. Patterned purple slates, terracotta ridge tiles, ashlar coped skews, crowsteps and skewputts and coped ashlar stacks.

INTERIOR: Nos 6, 8 and 9. Wide timber doors with flanking lights and decorative frames, timber staircase and some decorative cornicing. All houses retain grey marble fireplaces. No 9 with interior ogee opening and panelling to window over cast-iron fireplace with no stack (see Notes).

BOUNDARY WALLS AND RAILINGS: low coped rubble boundary walls to S, high coped rubble boundary walls to N, E and W. Decorative cast-iron railings and gates.

Statement of Interest

These four houses were built on Mrs Beatson's Land and stand on the line of the old town wall which was built during the reign of Charles I. The plans were exhibited at the RSA in 1863. Built by the owner's son, the project remained unfinished as, according to legend, the young man's fiancee left him, causing him to take his own life by hanging in one of these houses. This accounts for the incongruous placing of the ogee window above a fireplace and the double entrances to No 9.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata IDs Q17569569 Q56294244

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

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
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  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
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  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)