Ballantyne Memorial Institute, Caberston Road, Walkerburn, Innerleithen, Scottish Borders

Description

J.B. Dunn, 1903. 2-storey, multi-bayed, near rectangular-plan Scottish Domestic Memorial Hall with crowstepped gables breaking roofline; later single storey, single bay, flat-roofed entrance extensions flanking main elevation. Coursed whinstone base course, rock-faced red sandstone with polished dressings to principal elevation; other elevations harled with red sandstone dressings and angle margins. Sill, band and eaves course meeting sandstone angle margins. Crowstepped gables with kneeler putts.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical elevation: whinstone base course with sill course of red sandstone, tripartite window to centre with stone mullions set within sandstone panel, single window with sandstone margins to flanks. To 1st floor, slightly projecting sandstone gable with corbelled base (below band course) supporting moulded panel with BALLANTYNE MEMORIAL in relief, 4-light window with sandstone mullions and transoms, decorative lintel with relief decoration and date (19 rose thistle shamrock 03), pilastered surround to all terminating in decorative stone finials, arched pediment with lion shield and foliate detail surmounting and rising into gablehead, again terminating in decorative finial; plain wall (with lower wallhead) flanking main decorative gable and terminating in piended roofs. To flanks of main building: single storey, single bay, harled flat-roofed extensions (wallhead facades higher than extension) with doors positioned adjacent to main building; left return of left extension blind and right return of right extension with 21-glass block window to left.

W ELEVATION: single storey extension concealing right of ground floor, regularly fenestrated to rest. To centre of 1st floor, paired bipartite dormers with crowstepped gableheads; tall stack to outer flanks.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: end of original building.

E ELEVATION: to left, original ground floor concealed by later extension (see S PRINCIPAL ELEVATION) with tripartite dormer to 1st floor with stone mullions and crowstepped gablehead. Symmetrical projecting gable off centre right with bipartite window to centre of ground floor with single window to flanks; to 1st floor, bipartite window with adjacent single window (forming faux tripartite), lintels aligned with outer eaves; blind crowstepped gablehead breaking eaves; stack to right. To left return, partially concealed bipartite window to ground floor with single window to upper floor; right return not seen. To far right, later harled extension concealing original ground floor; upper floor blind.

Some leaded windows of square quarry survive to the principal hall of the 1st floor; modern PVCu replacements to later wings and rest of elevations; glass bock window to E entrance extension. Pitched purple slate roof with piended angles flanking raised gableheads; stone ridging with lead flashing and valleys. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods. Pair of tall harled wallhead stacks (stepped above roofline) to W elevation with moulded stone neck copes and 3-4 plain terracotta cans; tall stack of similar style to N of E elevation.

INTERIOR: currently in use as a hall and social club; the ground floor has undergone remodelling, but the upper hall still contains some original features such as windows and interior sills and room layouts.

Statement of Interest

This hall was built by John Ballantyne (of Stoneyhill) in memory of his father Henry Ballantyne, founder of Walkerburn. Under Henry Ballantyne, Walkerburn had grown from a single farm into a manufacturing village of some size; all based around the Tweedvale and Tweedholm mills. The idea of a hall for the people of the village came from John Ballantyne who had already been instrumental in providing other village amenities (such as helping provide funds for the church, a bridge over the milldam, and the bowling club, adjacent to the railway station). After the school had been built in the early 1860s, the villagers had used it for meetings and entertainment but a purpose built Good Templars Hall was built and the school was used less. Ballantyne built and endowed a new building and called it the Ballantyne Memorial Institute. It was "large and commodious" and provided a centre for village activity. As well as the hall, there was a library (whose books the villagers could read in the reading room or borrow from the collection), a reading room (for newspapers and books from the library), a billiard room (for gentlemen's entertainment) and other convening rooms which were used to hold meetings. A committee of local people ran the Institute. The Ballantyne family commissioned the architect of this building, J.B Dunn, quite a bit in the early 20th century, following his 1890 ballroom extension at Stoneyhill for John Ballantyne. Dunn designed Nether Caberston for John King Ballantyne (now Tweed Valley Country House) in 1906 and the War Memorial of 1923 (all listed separately). The Institute is unusual as it is built on girders straddling the mill lade. Listed as an example of a Dunn public building, the rest in the area being private villas and also for its local social and historical importance.

External Links

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