Walled Garden, Mersington House, Eccles, Scottish Borders

Entry Name: Walled Garden, Mersington House

Listing Name: Mersington House Including Stable Block, Garden Walls, Boundary Walls, Quadrant Walls and Gatepiers

Listing Date: 1 February 1999

Category: B

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 392936

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB45897

Building Class: Cultural

Also known as: Mersington House, Walled Garden

ID on this website: 200392936

Location: Eccles

County: Scottish Borders

Electoral Ward: Mid Berwickshire

Parish: Eccles

Traditional County: Berwickshire

Tagged with: Walled garden

Description

Dated 1865 with later additions and alterations. 2-storey with attic, 4-bay, near U-plan, gabled Tudor style house with single storey porch recessed to side; single storey wings forming service courtyard at rear. Coursed and stugged cream sandstone; cream ashlar dressings. Raised base course; architraved string course; corniced eaves. Rusticated quoins; lugged surrounds to chamfered openings; sandstone mullions; chamfered cills. Blind rectangular niches centred in wallhead gables surmounting 1st floor windows; decorative finials throughout. Single storey with attic, 3-bay stable block to W. Single storey, 3-bay gate lodge to NW.

SE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 4-bay. Gabled bay slightly advanced to outer left with tripartite window at ground; bipartite window at 1st floor; small attic light centred in finialled gablehead. Bipartite windows at both floors in 3 bays recessed to right. Gabled porch recessed to outer right with boarded timber door at centre; decorative iron hinges; round-arched plate glass fanlight; round-arched, roll-moulded surround; dated panel centred in gablehead; surmounting finial.

NE (SIDE) ELEVATION: 4-bay. Projecting porch off-set to left of centre; bipartite window to front; blind niche centred in surmounting gablehead. Slightly advanced gabled bay recessed to left with bipartite windows at ground and 1st floors; small attic light centred in finialled gablehead. 3-bay range recessed to right with porch obscuring bay at ground to left; bipartite window aligned at 1st floor; bipartite windows at both floors in remaining bays to right. Single storey, 2-bay wing to outer right with narrow windows in both bays.

NW (REAR) ELEVATION: 3-bay. Recessed central bay with single storey, lean-to projection at ground; tripartite window at 1st floor. Gabled bays advanced to left and right with single storey wings projecting at ground; small attic lights centred in gableheads; surmounting stacks. Coped sandstone walls and pyramidal-capped square-plan piers enclosing central courtyard. Single storey gabled porch recessed to outer left.

SW (SIDE) ELEVATION: 5-bay. 2-leaf glazed doors at ground in bays to outer right and penultimate bay to outer left; bipartite windows in remaining bays at both floors. Single storey, 2-bay wing adjoined to outer left with boarded timber door in bay to left; 3-pane fanlight; boarded opening in bay to right.

Predominantly 3-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Purple-grey slate roof; stone-coped skews; moulded skewputts; iron rainwater goods. Sandstone ashlar ridge and apex stacks with cornices linking square-plan flues; circular cans.

INTERIOR: refurbished 1998. Boarded timber floor to hall; timber skirting boards; plain cornices. Main dogleg stair with barley-twist uprights, ball-finialled, square-plan newels, timber handrails. Some decorative plaster cornices to ground floor reception rooms; various marble, timber and stone fireplaces. Timber panelled doors throughout; some timber panelled shutters. Service bells in place.

STABLE BLOCK: near square-plan, M-gabled block. Squared and snecked stugged cream sandstone; tooled sandstone dressings. Overhanging timber bracketed eaves; decorative timber bargeboards. Long and short surrounds to stop-chamfered openings; projecting cills. SE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 3-bay. Boarded timber door in bay to outer left; 2-pane fanlight. 2-leaf, boarded timber carriage door in bay to right; gabled bay to outer right with 2-leaf, boarded timber carriage door at ground; boarded opening centred in gablehead above. NE (SIDE) ELEVATION: 4-bay. Single windows at centre and in bay to outer left; single window slightly raised off-set to right of centre. Single storey, lean-to projection to outer right with coped and railed wall forming enclosure to side. NW (REAR) ELEVATION: narrow opening off-set to right of centre. SW (SIDE) ELEVATION: M-gabled elevation with attic windows centred in gableheads. 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows; rooflights. Grey slate roof. Sandstone wallhead stack to NE. INTERIOR: not seen 1998.

GARDEN WALLS, BOUNDARY WALLS, QUADRANT WALLS AND GATEPIERS: tall, coped and tooled sandstone walls partially enclosing walled garden to SW of house. Coped and tooled cream sandstone walls flanking entrances to SW and NW; coursed square-plan, stop-chamfered piers; corniced, piended caps; gates missing. Squared and snecked, coped and tooled cream sandstone quadrant walls flanking main entrance from road; coursed square-plan, stop-chamfered piers; ball-finialled, corniced caps; gates missing.

Statement of Interest

An impressive, well-detailed house currently being restored (1998). The style of architecture bears some similarity with that of local architect, W J Gray, whose TREATISE ON RURAL ARCHITECTURE was published in 1852. See separate list entry for Gray's similarly detailed Turtleton Farmhouse, Duns. A single storey gate lodge, set just inside the NW entrance, has been substantially extended at rear (1998). The walled garden, which lies immediately to the SW of the house, is currently being rebuilt. Rutherfurd notes Major Thomas Nisbet as owner of Mersington in 1866.

External Links

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