Balbeg, 4A Mill Road, Bothwell, Bothwell, South Lanarkshire

Description

Possibly John Baird, later 19th century, with later alterations and additions. 2-storey (single storey to right) asymmetrical 6-bay villa (now divided) with tall gabled bay to right and lower (probably service) gabled bay to left. Advanced and recessed planes with square-plan flat-roofed porch in angle to right of centre and modern garage to outer left. Stugged and snecked pink sandstone ashlar with polished ashlar dressings. Base course; cill course at ground floor; band and string course to ground floor; cornice, slightly corbelled, above ground floor. Aprons to ground floor windows; keystoned, round-arched hood moulds to ground floor; bracketed cill and keystone surround to 1st floor windows (columnar mullion to window to left); droved strip quoins to angles.

E (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: round-arched window to advanced porch in bay to right of centre; small window at 1st floor above; steps to round-arched doorway in left return; 2-leaf part stained glass panelled door. Window at ground, with narrow window flanking, in gabled bay to right; round-arched window at 1st floor above. Window in recessed single storey bay to outer right. Window at ground in bay to left of porch; blind slit at 1st floor above. Window at ground in slightly recessed, gabled bay to penultimate left; bipartite, round-arched window at 1st floor above. Round-arched doorway set to right, in recessed bay to outer left; 2-leaf boarded doors with replacement part-glazed vestibule door with rectangular fanlight; blind slit at 1st floor above. Modern archway adjacent to flat-roofed garage with modern door to extreme left.

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: irregular 2-storey, 4-bay, grouped 2-1-1 with lower gabled bay to right, single storey gabled bay to outer right and blank pitched wall set back to outer left. 3-light round-arched window at ground in bay to centre; 3 blind slits, evenly disposed at 1st floor above. 3-light canted window at ground in gabled bay to outer left; round-arched window at 1st floor above. Bipartite round-arched window at ground in advanced gabled bay to right; bipartite, round-arched window at 1st floor above. Replacement boarded door, set to left in advanced single storey bay to outer right; gablehead stack above; 2 windows, unevenly disposed in left return.

N (SIDE) ELEVATION: 3-bay single storey block spanning ground with stair window set to centre. Replacement door at ground in bay to centre; bipartite window flanking to left; window, set wide, to right; 2 tall wallhead stacks to outer left and right above. Boarded cellar door with sunken steps to main wall set back to outer right.

S (SIDE) ELEVATION: irregular M-gabled, 3-bay (possibly originally service) block with single storey block to outer left; further, higher level, M-Gabled S side of main block set back above. Window at ground in bay to centre; round-arched window at 1st floor above. Tall stair window at 1st floor in bay to right; narrow window flanking at ground. Window in each M-Gabled bay set back to main block; gablehead stacks above. Small window, set to right, in single storey bay to left.

Predominantly 2-pane timber sash and case windows with 4-pane timber sash and case windows to single storey flanking blocks; fixed, replacement stair window to N. Grey slate roof; slate to single storey blocks; flat roof to porch; corrugated iron, flat roof to garage; ashlar coped stacks to N and S of main block and to SW angle at rear; painted plain bargeboards; cast-iron rainwater goods with some uPVC replacements.

INTERIOR: architraved, timber panelled doors, skirting boards and cornices extant. Floriate bordered panelled ceiling over stairwell. Pitched glazed ceiling over billiard room on 1st floor.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: low sandstone walls with curved cope and replacement wrought-iron railings linking 2 sets of gatepiers. N PIERS: square-plan with plain blank panel, cornice and scalloped hemispherical cap. S PIERS: square-plan with triple-bossed frieze, moulded cornice and shallow pyramidal cap. Replacement wrought-iron gates.

Statement of Interest

Originally a single villa, now divided, it shows an obvious debt to the designs of Alexander "Greek" Thomson, with whom Baird became partner in 1849, having worked with David and James Hamilton from 1839-1844, and briefly with James Smith. As with commissions by the partnership, the villa is characteristically made up of a number of advanced and recessed elements, individually roofed and externally expressing their function within. As McFadzean notes, Thomson villas had a tendency to be amassed from lower forms to the right hand side, building up to higher elements to the left; the principal elevation here, which faces away from the road, can be cited as such an example. Gomme and Walker note how, perhaps under Baird's influence, Thomson himself seems to favour "small, round-headed windows with deep reveals, arches and flattish roofs and gables", features in evidence at Mill Road, although the roof elements seem slightly too steep and the window reveals slightly too shallow for Thomson. There is however, little of the characteristic Thomson detailing, as found at Greenbank and at Craigievar nearby (see separate list descriptions), although there are typical oversailing eaves and columnar mullions. Important as an example of a generic "Thomson" villa type, aspiring to the originals found in the near vicinity (see above), and in itself a fine, plainly detailed villa of some substance.

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