Description

James Pearson Alison, 1903. Roughly 2-storey and attic, irregular-plan, Arts & Crafts house with projecting, octagonal entrance tower to NE elevation, timber-framed gable with 2-storey canted windows to NW (garden elevation) and steeply pitched, gabled roof with overhanging eaves. Rendered, with polished red sandstone ashlar dressings. 1st-floor cill course and eaves course to entrance tower only.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: Entrance (NE) elevation: low, stepped, ball-finialled side-walls flanking 2 stone steps to 2-leaf, half-glazed, timber-panelled door in triple-chamfered, Tudor-arched surround within 2-storey octagonal tower, corbelled out at 1st floor with finialled, bell-cast roof; shallow, canted ground-floor window in re-entrant angle to left with arched central light and vertical and horizontal glazing bars; advanced, single-storey, piend-roofed inglenook in re-entrant angle to right with tall, tapered, cross-plan, buttressed stack rising above. Buccleuch Road (NW) elevation: two 2-storey canted bays with brick bases at each floor supporting projecting, full-width, timber-framed gable with 5-light casement window; recessed lower wing to outer right with rectangular-plan lean-to greenhouse in re-entrant angle. Rear (SE) elevation: central outshot with piended platform roof at ground floor; large stair window above with vertical and horizontal glazing bars and arched central light, flanked by 2 single lights; 2 lights in apex of gable; raised cills.

Predominantly timber sash and case windows with plate glass lower and 6-pane upper sashes; some metal casement windows with leaded lights. Shouldered and corniced stacks with red clay cans. Terracotta roof tiles and ridges. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: Porch with Art Nouveau Lincrusta frieze. Timber stair with square timber newels and closed timber balustrade. Inglenook in drawing room. Dentilled timber picture rails to principal ground-floor rooms; 3-panel timber doors to principal ground-floor rooms; 4-panel timber doors elsewhere; timber-boarded cupboards to pantry; one timber chimneypiece. Plain cornices. Wall covering (probably Lincrusta) in imitation of wood panelling to porch, hall, stairs, landing and one ground-floor room

ANCILLARY STRUCTURES: Gabled garage/stable to S of house, with tongue-and-groove timber panelling and pulleys to interior; attached single-storey, L-plan, pitched-roofed block lining SW and SE sides of cobbled area to SW of house, comprising 4 storage rooms with timber-boarded doors and kennels with low parapet wall and iron gate and railings. Rendered, with grey slate roofs.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND GATES: Roughly squared, tooled pink sandstone wall to NW and N end of NE boundary with grey sandstone cope. Circular terminal piers flanking 2-leaf wrought-iron main gate to NE, raised flush piers at intervals flanking wrought-iron railings, and tall, flush, ball-finialled terminal piers flanking wrought-iron secondary gate to Buccleuch Road; rendered rubble wall with curved ashlar cope to SE side and S end of NE side, with timber-boarded rear gate to SE.

Statement of Interest

A picturesque, almost unaltered, early-20th-century, Arts & Crafts house with good interior and exterior detailing, designed by James Pearson Alison, Hawick's most prominent architect.

Alison had commenced practice in the town in 1888 and remained there until his death, during which period he was responsible for a large number of buildings of widely varying types and styles, including a considerable proportion of Hawick's listed structures. He designed several of the buildings along Buccleuch Road, but Ingleside has more in common stylistically with the very slightly later Woodgate (see separate listing) - one of his many villas in Wilton - than with its yellow sandstone neighbours.

Built in 1903 for R L McTaggart, the house is somewhat retrospective in its design, being strongly reminiscent of the 1870s work of English Arts & Crafts architect Richard Norman Shaw and his contemporaries. This is particularly evident both in the choice of materials (including red brick and terracotta) and in the use of certain motifs - the bay window to the left of the front door and the stair window to the rear recall the 'Ipswich window' form, inspired by 17th-century precedents, which frequently featured in buildings of the 'Queen Anne' style pioneered by Shaw. The drawing room inglenook is also a feature commonly used by Shaw.

Aside from the greenhouse at the west corner, the house retains its original plan. Some of the stacks were replaced in the late 20th century, following the design and materials of the originals. The ancillary buildings are not shown on Ordnance Survey maps even as late as the 1940s, but this may be an error as they do not appear to be significantly later than the house itself.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77780958

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.

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