Description

William Steven, designed 1906, completed 1907. 2-storey and attic, 3-bay, L-plan Arts and Crafts style villa with fine interior. Whitewashed harl with red-tiled gableheads and contrasting painted margins. Venetian and circular windows; some openings corniced. Stone and timber mullions, timber transoms.

NE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: advanced gabled bay to centre with polygonal-roofed, canted, 12-light transomed window at ground and Venetian window above; re-entrant angle to left with slate-roofed open timber porch on battered columns with latticed and vertical railings and latticed top 'lights', panelled timber door, and decoratively-glazed oculus on return to left, small dormer window above; slightly set-back bay to right with 2 windows at ground, bipartite window abutting eaves to right above and glazed oculus to left.

SE ELEVATION: gabled elevation with transomed rectangular-plan window to left at ground and bipartite window to outer right, single window to left and bipartite to right at 1st floor, further small window abutting slated gablehead. Porch (see above) to right.

SW ELEVATION: projecting gabled bay to right of centre with tripartite window at ground, part-glazed door on return to right and single window on return to left, further tripartite window at 1st floor and glazed oculus to each return; set-back bay to left with altered French window at ground and 6-light transomed window breaking eaves above.

NW ELEVATION: variety of elements to asymmetrically-fenestrated elevation including lower advanced gable to left with door on return to right and broad gable to right with 6-light transomed window at ground and small window in gablehead.Multi-pane glazing patterns in timber casement windows. Red tiles. Red brick Shavian stacks with cans. Overhanging eaves with plain bargeboarding; cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers.

INTERIOR: fine original decorative scheme in place including architraved panelled doors; screen door with coloured leaded glazing leading to semicircular-arched stairhall with timber-balustered dog-leg staircase with square-section newel posts and rectangular cupola in timber compartmented ceiling. Principal ground floor room to SW with compartmented ceiling, timber fire surround with tiled slips and overmantel, decoratively-astragalled part-glazed wall cupboard, segmental arch to rectangular-plan window; similarly-detailed dining room but without fireplace and cupboard. 1st floor bedrooms with timber cornices and shallow vaulting. Panelled, vaulted bathroom.

GATE, GATEPIERS AND RAILINGS: timber gatepiers and gate with vertical lower rails and latticed top reflecting porch detail, and decorative brass plate worded 'DRUMSHEEN'. Battered timber railings.

Statement of Interest

The first owner of Drumsheen was a Mrs White. Around 1910 the house was bought by William Fife Proctor, the son of a local flax spinner. Proctor served as a Captain in the 1st Scottish Horse, dying of wounds after Gallipoli. His widow was Ivy Constance Griffith or Proctor, of Rothamsted Avenue, Harpenden, Hertfordshire,who sold the house in 1919.

William Steven (1857-1939) trained as an architect, taking over the family joiners firm, Thomas Steven & Son on his father's death in 1906. The firm specialised in high quality joinery work including country houses like Castle Roy in Broughty ferry (demolished, 1954) and also erected a large number of mansions in Ireland.

Notes updated, 2014.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17831345

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)