Garden Boundary, Beechwood, 14, 16 and 18 Dollar Road, Tillicoultry, Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire

Description

Adam Frame of Thomas Frame and Son, circa 1860. 2-storey, asymmetrical gabled villa (divided into 3 houses) with elaborately carved timber bargeboards and pendants to gabled bays of principal (south) elevation; set within large private grounds and including fine interior. Squared, snecked and droved sandstone with ashlar dressings. Predominantly flat-arched windows. Some four-centred arched windows with Y-tracery glazing. Windows to principal (south) elevation with roll-moulded reveals. Exposed rafter end to gabled bays of side and rear elevations. 1 pointed timber finial remaining to centre gabled bay (other finials now missing).

Principal (south) elevation has 3 irregular bays (No. 18). Central door with leaded fanlight deeply set in four-centred arched surround with hood-mould. Advanced gabled bay to right of centre with 2-storey canted window and crenellated parapet, and blind quatrefoil in gable head. Shallow advanced, chamfered and gabled bay to left of centre with bipartite window at ground floor. Lower 2 storey, 2-bay, gabled wing (No. 16) adjoined to right (west) and set back with wider left bay with later door and bipartite window above with decorative hood mould. Late 19th century single storey gabled addition to left (east) with circa 2010 single storey pitched roof addition to the front of this.

West elevation comprises 3-bay gable to right, with bipartite window at 1st floor of gable flanked by narrow round-arched windows, and late 19th century 4-bay range (No. 14) to left, with a central gable breaking wallhead. Entrance door with square and margin-paned fanlight.

Variety of glazing patterns in timber sash and case windows; Y-tracery astragals to upper sashes of 4-centred arched windows. Slate roofs. Stepped and corniced end stacks and octagonal flues.

The interiors were seen in 2014 and include fine plasterwork ceilings. No. 18 is characterised by intricate plaster ceilings and timber fixtures. Entrance hall has timber panelling to walls with a dentilled cornice, and incorporating marble and timber mantelpiece. Four-centred arch on corbels to openings off hallway. Large round arched opening with timber detailing leading to staircase with iron balustrade and chamfered newel posts with blind quatrefoil motif. Drawing Room has a mantelpiece with figurative and floral decoration and a compartmented ceiling with quatrefoil motif. Dining room has a classical mantelpiece and compartmented ceiling incorporating acanthus and floral motifs and ceiling rose. Coombed ceiling with opaque square skylight over staircase. Decorative cornicing to principal rooms, in a variety of motifs. Corbelled and vaulted ceilings to 1st floor rooms, with room to southeast corner with elaborate compartmentalised ceiling. No. 14 has a tiled floor to entrance hall, moulded cornicing and window shutters to some rooms.

Boundary Walls and Gatepiers: rubble boundary walls to south, heightened circa 2005, with roll-moulded ashlar copes and chamfered and square-plan gatepiers with moulded caps. Brick boundary walls to west, north and east. Square gatepiers with ball finials set in north wall to east.

Statement of Interest

Beechwood House dates to around 1860 and retains very fine interior details, including elaborate plasterwork and high quality timber work. The exterior of the property has a number of distinguishing architectural details, including elaborate timber bargeboards, moulded architraves, stepped stacks and some Y-tracery windows. This high-quality detailing and the scale of the property is indicative of a house of some status in Tillicoultry, a village associated with the woollen industry and which is characterised by 19th century single storey and attic cottages. From the 1870s Beechwood was occupied by the prolific local wool mill owner, James Archibald and his family.

Around 1892 ancillary structures, including a curling pond, swimming pool and tennis court were constructed to the north of Beechwood House, and are shown in the 1892 plans as well as the 2nd edition OS map. These buildings were demolished after 1985 and the site redeveloped for housing. The gatepiers with ball finials to this area of land have been incorporating into the north garden wall.

The house was divided before the date of listing in 1979. In 2004 a single storey addition was built to the east elevation, to replace a 20th century addition which had itself replaced a conservatory.

The 1861 census and a newspaper article from 1865 records that Beechwood house was owned by James Snowdoune, a quarry owner, and his family. By the 1871 census the house was owned by the prolific local wool mill owner, James Archibald and his family. In the 1861 census the Archibalds lived in Stirling Street, a street which was laid out as part of the expansion of Tillicoultry and which is characterised by cottages for mill workers.

Adam Frame (1837-1901) was a Dumfermline based architect who around the early 1860s went into practice with his father, Thomas Frame, the firm becoming Thomas Frame and Son, architects, land surveyors and measurers. As well as private houses the practice designed schools, churches and commercial buildings in a range of styles, including neo-classical and Gothic, and they predominantly worked in Clackmannanshire and Fife. The practice's work includes a tenement on Mill Street in Alloa, Townhill Primary School in Fife and the former Post Office and Savings Bank in Alloa (see separate listings). Beechwood House is one of Adam Frame's earliest buildings.

Listed building record and statutory address updated in 2014. Previously listed as 'Beechwood, Dollar Road'.

External Links

Historic Environment Scotland Listing

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