Description

John Morgan, 1890; extended to W; sunroom mid 20th century. Single storey and attic, 6-bay Canadian Arts and Crafts style bungalow retaining fine interior detail. Brick with mock half-timbering. Deep granite base course, cavetto eaves course. Timber and brick mullions.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 3 original gambrel-roofed bays to right comprising tall timber-braced gable at centre with 6-light canted window giving way to panelled gablehead with 4-hole pigeon loft at apex, tripartite window to left and flat-roofed extension to right. Single window to left and further gabled bay beyond with canted

window and braced gablehead, and later flat-roofed bowed bay with 6-light window angled to outer left.

N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: gabled entrance bay recessed to right of centre with canopied, part-glazed panelled timber door and flanking narrow lights, 4 windows to left with 2 flat-roofed dormers above and decoratively-astragalled circular window on right return of gambrel roof; projecting gable with variety of elements to outer left. Further bay to right with garage door.

E ELEVATION: variety of elements including multi-light flat-roofed bowed bay to left, brick chimney breast piercing set-back gable with tiny window to left in gablehead.

Multi-pane coloured glass top lights to canted windows and plate glass glazing pattern in top-opening timber windows. Green slates with brick stacks, cans and decorative terracotta ridge tiles and cast-iron finial.

INTERIOR: fine decorative scheme in place including various decorative timber-lined rooms and ceilings, fire surrounds and overmantels; cupboards with leaded coloured glass panels and cast-iron radiators. Timber-balustered dog-leg staircase in kitchen leading to maids room.

Statement of Interest

John Morgan, builder, was the brother-in-law of Aberdeen architect Alexander Ellis. He built Woodcote as a holiday home and the result so impressed Ellis that he too built a holiday home, The Firs at Beltie Road, similar in style to Morgan's design, particularly in construction and interior decoration. Woodcote has a tall room, now a bedroom, thought to have been so-designed to accommodate fishing rods. John Morgan explained the inspiration for his design as follows, "After visiting America, I came home with some new ideas about Architecture, and built 'Woodcote' Torphins, a Bungalow after the manner of much that I saw in the outskirts of Toronto, and Montreal. Mr Ellis my brother-in-law, was so taken with its novelty, that he built 'The Firs' somewhat after the same style'. It was very simply built, the construction being as follows:- The walls up to a height of one foot above the ground, being the floor level, are built of rubble stones found in the excavations, with a rock-faced ashlar course by way of base, then two feet of hollow brickwork in all external walls and of half brick thickness in all partitions, above which the walls are of wooden framing, cement plastered in panels outside, and lined with narrow green stained wooden linings inside, the ceilings are lined to match the walls, but stained a different colour. The roof has a bold curved projection all round, and was at first covered with red tiles, but experience showed that these would not stand the severe frosts of the Deeside winters, and green slates had to be substituted, at considerable sacrifice to the effect".

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77780651

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback