Description

A G Sydney Mitchell, 1898. 2-storey L-plan Arts and Crafts villa with strong horizontal emphasis and single storey service wing to N. White harl with dressings of red sandstone. Battered rubble base; moulded ashlar cill course at 1st floor; deep overhanging eaves with paired brackets; tall stacks with ashlar cornices.

SE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 2-bay; single storey flat-roofed glazed entrance porch on rubble base with overhanging eaves to right, projecting cornice over door on carved timber corbels with dragon heads; corner window to outer right at 1st floor.

SW (HERMITAGE DRIVE) ELEVATION: 5-bay; centre and outer bays advanced with narrow tripartite windows to ground (corniced) and 1st floor. Bays to left and right of centre with keystoned ashlar bull's eye window at ground floor; narrow bipartite window at 1st floor.

NW ELEVATION: modern conservatory on brick base to left; lean-to projecting inglenook to right with tall wallhead stack and narrow stained glass window on returns. Tripartite and single window at 1st floor. Single storey service wing with half-piend roof to outer left.

NE ELEVATION: 4-bay; advanced bay to outer right with wallhead stack and single storey service wing. Bay to right of centre with canted stair tower with half-piend roof and tall stair windows to 1st floor. Single windows and wallhead stack to bay to left of centre. Bay to outer left with corner window at 1st floor. Single storey piend-roofed outhouse forming small service court. Detached single storey piend-roofed garage with timber door to NE.

Multi-pane timber casements (modern replacements with plate glass glazing to SW). Red tile bellcast roof with red ridge tiles; 3 wallhead stacks (see above). 1 transverse stack to SE.

INTERIOR: hall with transverse arch on marble pillars, small room at ground floor with elaborate plaster ceiling and moulded timber panelling; large ground floor drawing room divided by sliding doors, inglenook to NW with marble fireplace.

Tall rubble wall to rear and sides with semi-circular coping, low wall to front and SW, later pedestrian and carriage gates.

Statement of Interest

The plain cubism and horizontally of the design shows a great awareness of developments in contemporary architecture, looking not only at English examples (eg Voysey for colour and texture) but even more so to th Continent (eg Olbrich, Hoffmann). The reinstatement of the original glazing to the SW elevation would greatly increase the architectural merit of this exceptional avant-garde design.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17809352

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

• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings