Glasshouse Range, Walled Garden, The Glen, Traquair, Scottish Borders

Description

Early to mid 19th century with additions and alterations circa 1909, Robert Lorimer; later 19th century glasshouse, Mackenzie and Moncur with shed range to rear. Tall walled nursery and flower garden with arched and buttressed E wall terminating in round angle towers with conical roofs, lower curved SW wall leading to earlier NW wall with pair of tall squared gate piers and pair of wrought-iron gates; single storey, 11-bay potting shed range adjoining high lean-to style glasshouse within garden. Squared whinstone rubble shed range with ashlar long and short quoins and tooled window surrounds. Ashlar gatepiers whinstone rubble wall with ashlar copes; harled SE wall with ashlar copes, arched central entrance with tooled and moulded surrounds, flat ashlar coping to walls, harled towers with tooled ashlar dressings.

NW (FARM STEADING) ELEVATION, GATEPIERS AND GATES: mid-height whinstone rubble wall arching up and flanking pair of high square ashlar gate piers aligned with farm steading entrance (advanced base plinth, string course below moulded flat caps) containing pair of mid-height decorative scroll and circle motif gates with iron grate inset into ground. Wall adjoins Silo Cottage (listed separately) grounds to left and continues in a rough arc to become SW ELEVATION with a later square-arched entrance to E end with brick dressings.

SE (HOUSE AND GARDEN) ELEVATION: long harled concave arched wall with ashlar dressings and copes; 4 advanced retaining walls with stepped buttress ends in paired arrangement to either side of central arched entrance (with rusticated ashlar long and short quoins, roll-moulded surround and pair of decorative wrought-iron scroll-work gates with scroll and circle motif dog bars). Tall harled circular angle towers to either end with droved ashlar dressings to front facing entrance door (on S tower), slit windows to sides and moulded eaves course in lieu of rainwater goods, conical roof with finial surmounting (on S tower: inset stone plaque with moulded surround above door with, in relief, 'WHILE THE EARTH REMAINETH, SEED TIME AND HARVEST SHALL NOT CEASE'; interior forms gazebo with timber boarded walls, ceiling and rustic bench on tree trunk legs).

NE ELEVATION: fairly plain whinstone rubble wall angled and terraced around Gardener's House (listed separately); to N, stone steps and former gated entrance leading to frameyard (gables of potting shed range and Nursery Cottages flank walls).

INTERNAL WALL AND STEPS: coursed whinstone rubble wall (formerly part of now demolished range, remnants of whitewashed plaster on W face) with raised centre and stylised castellated steps with squared urn decorations surmounting; to E, flight of ashlar steps with low wing walls and large ashlar vase planters at each corner (bottom left now missing).

GLASSHOUSE AND SHED RANGE: to SE face, long Mackenzie and Moncur timber and cast-iron lean-to style glasshouse range with very high ridge, semi-glazed entrance doors to each end. To NW, single storey, 11-bay, rectangular-plan lean-to potting shed range adjoining glasshouse to rear: timber boarded doors to bays 2, 4 and 7 with ashlar dressed windows to other bays; door to SW end, blind end to NE; high arch-top wing wall projecting from each end with pedestrian arch at W (head of garden statue surmounting) and squared cart arch to E (gates now missing).

8 lying-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows (horned upper sashes) to shed range; plate glass to glasshouse. Glazed mono-pitch roof with timber and cast-iron frame and decorative braces; slated mono-pitch roof to shed rage (partially replaced to SW with later corrugated-metal sheeting); conical fish-scale slate roof to angle towers with lead ball and spike finial surmounting. Originally with painted cast-iron rainwater goods (little of which still survive). Small squared ashlar wallhead stack with single can to shed range.

INTERIOR: glasshouse: subdivided into 2 sections with fruit section to S, cast-iron walkway full length of glasshouse resting on whitewashed rubble supports. Fairly plain interiors to shed range, still in use for garden purposes and stores.

Statement of Interest

Part of an A-Group with all other Glen estate buildings. The Glen estate can be traced as far back as 1296 when Sarra of the Glen swore allegiance to King Edward I of England. The estate remained in the family's hand until around 1512, when the grounds became fragmented and parts were sold to neighbouring landowners and families. By the 1700's, there were 2 main parts of the estate, Easter and Wester Glen. Easter Glen was sold to Alexander Allan (an Edinburgh banker) in 1796 for #10,500. At this point, the house was a fairly small plain farmhouse. His son, William Allan (Lord Provost of Edinburgh) was responsible for enlarging and extending the house, the architect being his friend William Playfair (see The Temple, listed separately); even after improvement it was still not regarded as being fit for a landowner's principal residence. The 3.500-acre estate was bought in 1852/3 by Sir Charles Tennant, owner of the chemical works of St. Rollox, Glasgow, for #33,140. The house was by then outdated and not suited to modern family life; he commissioned David Bryce to design a baronial style house, to which a tower (also by Bryce) was added in 1874. Charles Tennant was a well-known patron of horticulture and the fine arts as well as a successful industrialist. He improved the estate landscape (1860-1890) and was responsible for the building of a school, farm, worker's and estate cottages, walled kitchen garden and kennels making the Glen virtually self-sufficient. Robert Lorimer carried out internal remodelling after a fire in 1905, also added some garden terraces and later redesigned part of this walled garden. It is believed that part of the NW wall (including the gatepiers and gates) were part of an older enclosed garden on the site; earlier maps show an enclosure with rounded ends directly opposite the farm steading. To the SE of this, a plantation area ran NE-SW before becoming a grassed area, which terminated in the arched and buttressed SE wall. An L-plan gardener?s house stood on roughly the same site as the present structure (listed separately) and along with another L-plan building to the SW of the site (probably a gardeners' bothy as it overlooks both the garden and plantation area) formed the only garden buildings. By the 1890's, around 14 gardeners were employed to tend to the kitchen, walled flower and formal gardens. A team of horses was used to cut the grass and they wore special shoes so as not to damage it as they went around. There were an impressive amount of glasshouses, of which only the remains of 2 survive and one complete one with a potting shed range adjoining to rear. The rear wall of the former S glasshouse range (now internal garden wall, see above) follows the original line of the L-plan gardener's bothy, which partially formed part of the SW-NE wall of the original enclosure. This wall is very ornate with squared urn finials surmounting and is believed to date with the gatepiers and gates on the earlier NW wall. The intact glasshouse faces SE and has a row of adjoined sheds to the rear, which would have been used for potting and storing bulbs and tools. The sheds over look a cobbled frameyard (where the frames still survive). Opposite this a row of garden bothies (Nursery Cottages, listed separately with Silo View) which formerly provided accommodation for the gardeners. A newer cottage, Silo View was added to the NW in 1903. The gardens are less formal today but still add a fine aspect to the landscape. Listed as important examples of Bryce and Lorimer designed landscaping and for its importance near the centrepiece of an intact later 19th century estate (other estate buildings are listed separately).

External Links

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