Gate Piers, Walls, Cobbled Courtyard, Stainrigg House, Eccles, Scottish Borders

Description

Erected 1631; rebuilt by Kinnear & Peddie, dated 1880; later additions and alterations. Asymmetrical 3-storey, 5-bay Scots Baronial house with 2-storey Renaissance wing recessed to left; single storey and single storey with attic wing (incorporating stables and groom's cottage) recessed to right. Squared and snecked tooled cream and red sandstone rubble; cream sandstone ashlar dressings (droved in part). Architraved string course in part; moulded eaves course; crowstepped gables. Narrow quoin strips; stop-chamfered margins; sandstone mullions and transoms; chamfered cills. Detached single storey kennel block at rear.

SE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: near L-plan main block with projecting flat-roofed porch in re-entrant angle to left of centre; 2-leaf timber panelled door; flanking pilasters; balustraded parapet with ball-finialled piers; coat-of-arms beneath round-arched pediment at centre. Tripartite stair window set behind at 1st floor. Engaged, conical-capped, circular-plan tower in re-entrant angle to left. Full-height gabled bay advanced to outer left with single windows at ground and 2nd floors; bipartite at 1st floor with decorative iron balcony. Gabled bays to right with windows at ground; window at 1st floor to left (corbelled sandstone brackets to decorative iron balcony); bipartite to right, armorial panel centred above; bipartites beneath gableheads at 2nd floor. 2-storey, 3-bay wing recessed to left with segmental-arched loggia at ground in 2 bays to right; bipartites aligned above; ogee-roofed square-plan tower slightly advanced to outer left. Single storey, 3-bay range recessed to right with door to right; windows in 2 bays to left. Single storey with attic crowstepped range (incorporating stables and Little Stainrigg) to outer right.

SW (SIDE) ELEVATION: 2-bay block to right with tripartite windows projecting at ground and 1st floors to right (sandstone brackets beneath 1st floor iron balcony; modern spiral stair to left); single window at ground to left; bipartite aligned at 1st floor; single window breaking eaves at upper floor in central wallhead gable; flanking bipartites with ball-finialled gableheads. 2-storey, ogee-capped tower projecting to left. Irregularly fenestrated 2-storey, 2-bay gabled wing recessed to outer left.

NW (REAR) ELEVATION: near U-plan. Flat-roofed, single storey addition centred at ground; irregularly fenestrated above. 2-storey wing advanced to right. Further 2-storey wing advanced to outer right with flat-roofed addition on single piloti recessed to left. Irregularly fenestrated full-height gabled wing advanced to left of centre. Single storey service wing to left. U-plan stable courtyard advanced to outer left.

NE (SIDE) ELEVATION: gabled bay to left of centre with stained window at ground to left; irregularly fenestrated to right. Stained window at ground to outer left; dated plaque aligned at 1st floor. Projecting single storey and single storey with attic service and stable blocks to outer right.

Plate glass, 4-, 6- and 8-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Grey slate roof; crowstepped skews; beak skewputts; iron rainwater goods. Coped apex and wallhead stacks; various octagonal and circular cans.

INTERIOR: adapted for use as conference centre. Timber panelled vestibule; timber fireplace. Main reception rooms with decorative cornices; original fireplaces. Dogleg stair with ball-finialled timber panelled newels, barley-twist timber uprights, timber handrail, timber treads. Timber panelled doors throughout; decorative plasterwork; some fireplaces. Service bells in place.

STABLES AND LITTLE STAINRIGG, NW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: U-plan. 4-bay range recessed at centre with 2-leaf boarded timber doors, plate glass fanlights; single windows to outer left and right. 2-leaf boarded timber door set at angle in re-entrant angle to right. 2-storey, M-gabled wing projecting to outer right. Single storey wing to projecting outer left (Little Stainrigg). Grey slate roof; pyramidal-capped louvred ridge ventilators. Coped ridge and wallhead stacks; circular cans. INTERIOR, STABLES: boarded timber dado panelling; boarded timber stalls; ball-finialled iron newels; iron hay racks; combed ceilings with circular-plan boarded timber hay shoots.

KENNELS: L-plan. Harl-pointed squared and snecked tooled sandstone rubble; stugged long and short dressings. SE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: single storey with attic, single bay block to left with modern garage door at ground; single window aligned beneath gablehead. Single storey, 2-bay wing recessed to right with boarded timber doors in both bays. Coped rubble wall with ball-finialled iron railings enclosing exercise yard to front; ball-finialled iron gate. Grey slate roof; stone skews. INTERIOR: not seen 1998.

COBBLED COURTYARD, COURTYARD WALLS AND GATEPIERS: cobbled courtyard at rear. Tall coped rubble walls; square-plan gatepiers flanking rear entrance; tiered, ball-finialled caps, modern timber gate.

Statement of Interest

B Group comprises Stainrigg House, April Cottage, the Walled Garden and Well (see separate list entries). Formerly known as Stoneridge, the house was originally a "...a very neat but small mansion" (Ordnance Survey Name Book), incorporating a structure dating back to 1631. A photograph held in the NMRS shows it as it was then - a symmetrical, 2-storey with attic, 5-bay, plain classical edifice with a columnar doorpiece and central pediment. Subsequently remodelled in the Scots Baronial style, Stainrigg is now far from its original form, but nevertheless remains impressive, with much of its late 19th century detailing intact. Rutherfurd notes a John Hood as owner and Capt John Allen Allen as occupier in 1866. The 1880, 'rebuilding' was commissioned by General Cockburn Hood - hence, the plaque at rear embossed 'JCH 1880' and the plaque to the side (NE) recording the house was 'Erected 1631 Rebuilt 1880'. A single storey, rectangular-plan garage/store is set to the rear of the house, whilst a pair of cream sandstone quadrant walls flank the main entrance from the road.

External Links

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