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Summary

Description

Dating from around 1880 and subdivided in 1976, The Meadows is a large, two-storey and attic, Scots Baronial villa. It is three bays wide, with a French Renaissance-style tower, ornamental railings, gabletted crowstepped gables with mace-shaped finials and crowstepped hoodmoulds with square panels within. The adjoining single-storey and attic former service wing is known as Meadows Cottage and includes the single-storey former coachhouse attached to its south elevation. The villa and former service wing is located in a large garden surrounded by mature trees and lawns. The current access drives and boundary walls (to the west) date from the late-20^th century.

The Meadows is constructed in cherry-caulked whinstone with sandstone margins to the east (entrance) elevation, Aberdeen-bonded sandstone to the north elevation and coursed and stugged sandstone to the rear (west) elevation. It has a base course, crenellated parapets to the bay windows and a string course between the ground and first floor. Meadows Cottage (the former service wing) is constructed in coursed sandstone and the former coachhouse is built in random rubble stone.

The east (entrance) elevation of The Meadows has steps to a central crenellated porch with a timber-panelled outer door and windows in the returns. There is a canted bay window to the right and a slightly advanced tripartite bay window to the left. There are three windows to the first floor, triangular-headed attic windows (the central one in a corbelled wallhead dormer). The two-bay former service wing (Meadows Cottage) is located to the left of the villa with a bipartite window to the right and a wallhead dormer above. It has an advanced gabled bay to the left with a window above. The five-bay coachhouse is to the outer left with a segmental carriage arch (now glazed) to the centre.

The west (rear) elevation of The Meadows has a central recessed bay with steps leading from the window to the garden with a single first floor window above and a gabletted attic window with a squared fishscale slated tower behind complete with cast-iron brattishing. There is a slightly advanced tripartite bay window to the ground and first floors on the right, and canted bay windows to the ground and first floors on the left. The west elevation of the former service wing has a tripartite window to the left with a crowstepped wallhead dormer above and a gabled bay to the right with window above. There is an entrance porch in the re-entrant angle of the service wing and coachhouse.

The windows in The Meadows are predominantly timber sash and case plate glass windows with chamfered margins. Those in Meadows Cottage are largely uPVC replacements. The roof is covered in grey slates with corniced ashlar gable chimneystacks with moulded octagonal clay cans. There are cast iron rainwater goods with top hoppers throughout.

Recent photographs of The Meadows (2022) show the principal rooms retain their late-19th century, classical decorative style. At the time of listing in 2004, it was noted that the principal rooms have timber panelling to the walls, moulded cornicing, picture rails and fire surrounds, some with scrolled brackets. The main hall has a Jacobethan-style oak chimneypiece and overmantel supported by barley-twist columns, coffered ceilings, dentilled cornicing and decorative plasterwork which, the previous listed building record noted, is an eclectic and distinctive late-19th century decorative scheme. Features include a Renaissance-style, timber, dog-leg staircase with a moulded balustrade, newel posts with attached candelabra (now electric) and a gallery to the first floor. The dining room has an adjacent servery. A decorated arch, with low relief figurative medallions, leads to the first floor drawing room with an elaborate cornice and ceiling rose, classical style mahogany chimneypiece and tiled hearth. The attic billiard room has a small timber chimneypiece at each end tiled with depictions of Aesop's fables and crafts scenes (plumber, shoemaker, dyer, barber, weaver, tailor and tanner), and three small stained-glass domed cupoli.

Sales particulars for Meadows Cottage, dating from 2018, show the property retains some late-19^th century internal features, including decorative fire surrounds, moulded cornicing, picture rails, deep skirting and timber panelling to the window reveals.

Statement of Special Interest

The house, comprising The Meadows and Meadows Cottage, is a distinctive Scots Baronial villa built for a wealthy industrialist in the late-19^th century.

The Meadows was historically named Mainshamilton and is named as such on the 2^nd Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1895. This large villa replaced a rectangular-plan farmhouse (also called Mainshamilton) shown on the 1^st Edition map of 1855 and described in the Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1855-57 as a good dwelling with outbuildings, gardens and small patches of wood attached (OS1/3/12/79). Comparisons between the 1^st and 2^nd Edition maps show the single-storey, L-plan coachhouse (now attached to the south elevation of Meadows Cottage) may date from the earlier farmhouse.

The previous listed building record noted that The Meadows was built in around 1880 for Robert Balfour, a cabinet manufacturer in Beith, and that at the time of listing in 2004, the house was still known locally as 'Balfour's place'. It is unclear when Balfour may have lived there. The Meadows was more likely built for James Crawford, a linen thread manufacturer. The 1871 and 1881 census returns list Crawford as living at Mains Hamilton [sic] with his family. James Crawford died at Mainshamilton in July 1887 (Irvine Times). The 1891 and 1901 census returns for his two sons, Hugh and James Crawford, show his widow and sons continued to live at the house until at least 1901. The name of the house changed to The Meadows sometime between 1909 and 1938 (as named on the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1938). The house was subdivided in 1976. The subdivision of the house has not adversely affected the architectural interest of the building, because the two properties remain visually coherent as a large villa with associated service structures that are stylistically similar to the main house.

The historic setting of the house has partially changed by the addition of 20th century housing surrounding the site, however it remains a distinctive property within the area due to its scale, architectural quality and positioning in the landscape. Its immediate setting within its own, largely secluded garden, surrounded by mature trees and lawns is largely retained. The house was originally set in large grounds, some of which is now occupied by private housing, and the gatepiers to the former drive survive on Roebank Road to the east. The properties are now accessed from the west.

Villas of this size and date can be found across Scotland and they are not rare building types, however, the overall design quality of this building, internally and externally, and the survival of its late-19^th century footprint and historic character are of interest in listing terms.

The supplementary information in the listed building record was revised in 2022.

References

Bibliography

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