Description

Robert A Bryden, dated 1893. 2-storey, irregular-plan Baronial villa situated at S edge of the village featuring prominent drum tower and ornate entrance porch. Squared, snecked and stugged sandstone ashlar. Ashlar dressings; roll-moulded openings. Bull-faced rubble base course, moulded string and eaves courses. E elvation: 3 bays. Slightly corbelled out crowstepped and ball-finialled gable to left with scrolled pedimented and prominent corniced chimneystack to right pitch; central conical roofed drum tower set in right return angle, dentiled string course to upper stage with carved name plaque, moulded eaves course with terminating dragon gargoyles. N elevation: 3 bays. Buttressed and crenellated porch to left with four- centred archway, mosaic floor with thistle motif, transomed and mullioned tripartite window with quatrefoil carved heads to return, prominent diamond-shafted ball-finialled pier rising from short square buttress to corner and ornate carved freize. Advanced central crowstepped gable with slightly advanced transomed and mullioned tripartite windows, carved datestone at 1st floor, small window to gablehead, round arched finial. S elevation: 3 bays; further single storey 2-bay section to left. Advanced crowstepped gabled bay to right, canted tripartite ground floor window; projecting tripartite square window to left with pillastered mullions, horizontal banding, ornamental parapet with name plaque and 4 ball finials above (3 missing, 2006). 2 breaking eaves dormers with ornamental scrolled pediments and ball-finial dies.

uPVC windows. Pitched roofs grey Scottish slate; irregular arrangement of square, corniced and coped ashlar chimneystacks; pierced terracotta ridge tiles; circular clay cans; cast-iron rainwater goods..

INTERIOR: good hardwood staircase with curved banister; timber half-panelling to hall; dentilled architraves to some doorway surrounds. Porch contains fine decorative floor mosaic.

Statement of Interest

The Sabbath Home was originally used as drop off point for newly interned children as well as providing accommodation for weekly Sunday School gatherings. Architect, Robert A Bryden was the director of the Sabbath School Union at the time, and this may account for the extra level of detail and finish compared to many of the other homes. The quality of the design and detailing is considered to compensate for the predominant use of uPVC windows (2006).

This purpose built settlement was founded by philanthropist William Quarrier in 1877 to accommodate orphaned and destitute children. He had operated orphanages in Glasgow since the early 1870s and was opposed to the institutional nature of the city poorhouses. 50 or so 'cottage homes' were built between 1877 and 1910 on the 10 acre site of Nittingshill Farm, bought at auction for £3560. Each employed a housemother who would look after groups of children in more familial and healthier environment than that of Glasgow's East End. The village also had its own school, church, post office, dairy, poultry farm, fire station, and workshops where the children were trained to a trade. Robert Alexander Bryden was responsible for designing all the buildings on the site in association with Andrew Robertson, with each villa built to an individual specification. The Free Revivalist style, making use of Baronial, Gothic and Tudor influences, is thought to have been inspired by the work of W E Nesfield and Richard Norman Shaw who pioneered the Garden Village movement in England. The village as a whole is significant historically in terms of education and development of children in care, and remains generally well preserved with only a few of the buildings having been altered or extended. The historic core of the village has held Conservation Area status since 1985.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77779225

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

• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)