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Summary

Description

David Bryce (Jnr), Attrib, 1864. 2-storey, 3-bay, symmetrical, piend-roofed Italianate villa with canted bays and elaborate interior plasterwork; adjoining earlier rectangular-plan, pitched roof house to rear, circa 1800 (see Notes).

Villa: buff sandstone ashlar with polished dressings. Interrupted band course; eaves course; moulded cornice. Rusticated quoins. To centre: balustraded stone steps to classical, square-pillared portico with moulded entablature and balustraded parapet; widely spaced tripartite window above. Slightly advanced bays flanking with large canted windows to ground, also with balustraded parapets.

Plate glass to timber sash and case windows. Pair of ridge stacks and end stacks with scrolled detailing. Octagonal clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

Circa 1790 house linked to rear: harled rubble with irregular fenestration; pitched roof with end stacks. Later 2-storey square-plan piend-roofed outshot to rear (W) elevation with lean-to roofed, glazed porch at re-entrant angle. Single storey former service range extends to right; adjoining multi-astragalled tripartite windowed to S gable facing garden to S.

STABLE BLOCK: located opposite house to rear; single-storey and attic, 5-bay gabled stable block with lower, single-storey piend-roofed bays flanking with segmental-arched opening to outer left and tall brick stack to outer right (tack room). Rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings. Irregular fenestration with multi-astragalled timber window frames. Mounting block to left of principal entrance. Grey slate. Octagonal can. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Interior: 5 timber boarded stalls; pebble-cobbled floor. Simple block fireplace to timber boarded tack room.

CART SHED: 2-storey cart shed with 6 segmental-arched cart openings separated by slender cast-iron columns, each surmounted by triangular relieving stone. Rubble with ashlar dressings. 3 small windows set close to eaves. Single-storey piend-roofed section to S with 2-leaf timber doors. Stone steps to N gable end to upper level door.

Statement of Special Interest

Threepwood is a house of two halves, the earlier Georgian house to the rear with its traditional pitched roof and irregular fenestration has been extended to the front in the mid 19th century with a Classical Italianate villa addition with a substantial portico and slightly advanced, piend-roofed outer bays.

Prominently sited on high ground with views over Threepwood Moss and out towards Cheviot Hills. Threepwood House is distinguished by its highly elaborate interior plasterwork ceilings to principal ground floor rooms and enriched timber mouldings to stair and landing. The quality of the stable block and cart shed with its slender cast-iron columns add to the interest of the house's setting, and is further enhanced by the wider grouping.

The lands of Threepwood (Threpwude) was given to the Monks of Melrose between 1165 and 1214, who had a forester there for preservation of the wood and pasture land. In the mid 17th century the territory was possessed by the Earl of Haddington and by the end of the 18th century was owned by a Charles Simson who built the house that largely constitutes the rear half of the present building.

The mid 19th century remodelling and large scale additions to the front of the property may have been for Sir John Rankine, Professor of Scots Law at Edinburgh University.

Evidence points to this remodelling having been carried out by David Bryce (Jnr), nephew of the eminent Scottish architect of the same name. His architecture was often similar in character to that of his uncle's and was particularly skilful in the design of canted bays as seen at his City of Glasgow Bank. He rebuilt the Star Hotel in Edinburgh's Princes Street, a pioneering building of its kind in 1861.

References

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