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Summary

Description

Kathleen Anne Veitch, 1936. 2-storey, butterfly-plan, south-facing, piend-roofed villa with slate-capped, battered buttresses, deep overhanging bell-cast roof, circular stair tower to entrance (N) elevation, and single-storey and attic, former garage wing to E. White-painted brick, with polished yellow sandstone ashlar margin to principal door, and slate cills. Eaves course. Channelled detailing to windows at 1st floor of principal elevation and to stair tower.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: Principal (S) elevation: buttresses flanking segmental-arched opening at ground floor to right of centre, with terracotta floor tiles to lobby and deeply recessed door; single window above; 2 broad windows to left and 1 to right at ground floor; 4 windows to left and 3 to right at 1st floor; former garage wing to outer right. Irregular fenestration to entrance (N) elevation; timber-boarded principal door in moulded stone architrave to right side of central circular stair tower with 3 staged windows following course of stair; former garage wing to outer left. Side (W) elevation with single window at ground floor.

Predominantly multi-pane glazing in replacement metal-framed windows; original Crittal windows to stair tower. Grey slate roof. Ashlar-coped, painted brick stack with circular terracotta cans (see NOTES). Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: Terracotta tiles to window ledges. Some herringbone-pattern parquet, and some Marbolith skirting (see NOTES). Broad, polished oak handrail to curved enclosing wall of stair, continuing down to base at ground and along gallery at 1st floor. Oak veneer doors with original Art Deco brass door furniture. Plain cast-iron radiators. Fitted cupboards with original door furniture to some bedrooms at 1st floor.

Statement of Special Interest

A well-planned 1930s house combining elements of Arts & Crafts and Moderne design, situated in the residential Wilton area of Hawick and unique in the vicinity for its choice of materials and style.

The overall horizontal emphasis and streamlined nature of the design, and the white-painted finish, are typical of the Moderne style of the period, whilst the battered buttresses and swept roof carry echoes of Arts & Crafts architecture of the late 19th and early 20th century. The plan makes full use of daylight by locating an access corridor to the north (originally on both floors, although the ground floor has latterly been altered to an open plan), so that all the rooms could have windows overlooking the south-facing, sloping garden.

Kathleen Anne Veitch (1908-68) is among the earliest women to have trained in the field of architecture. She was admitted an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1930 and subsequently travelled in Spain on the Owen Jones Scholarship before working in London for a time. She is understood to have been the daughter of the original owners of Summerfield, the villa to the north of Little Salt Hall, and to have been gifted part of the original grounds of Summerfield to built Little Salt Hall for herself. There is rumoured to be an identical house to Little Salt Hall in the Bemersyde area, although this has not been traced. The only other work known to have been carried out by Veitch is the restoration of the Church of Our Lady and St Joseph, Selkirk, begun in 1958. She was still working on this when she died in 1968, reputedly murdered in Berwick.

Externally the house appears to be essentially unaltered, with the exception of the removal of a stack towards its west end, the replacement of most windows, and some changes to the openings of the former garage during its conversion into an extension of the living accommodation. The interior has been significantly altered at ground-floor level, but retains some original parquet (partially repositioned), some Marbolith skirting (the Marbolith flooring having been removed after deterioration), and the original bakelite bell box; other bakelite fittings have been reintroduced by the current (2008) owners during renovation. The interior of the upper storey remains largely unaltered.

The house is sometimes known simply as 'Salt Hall', but is formally called 'Little Salt Hall' to differentiate it from the original Salthall, a house that stood nearby until the early 20th century (appearing on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map (1897) but gone by the time of the 3rd Edition (1917

, to which salt was brought from Prestonpans. The earlier building was little more than a crofter's barn, and as such was in fact far smaller than Little Salt Hall.

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