Statement of Special Interest
Hall House is a mid-19th century, cottage orné style purpose built schoolhouse with schoolroom. It was built as part of the mid to later 19th century planned estate village of Lamington and is a rare example of female industrial school, marking the social history of the village in the mid-19th century as well as being an important survival of forward thinking provision for the education of women during the period. The building is characteristic of the estate's architecture. It is constructed in locally sourced whinstone rubble with dressed sandstone margins, has a slate roof with overhanging eaves and exposed rafter ends and has distinctive diamond pane glazing. The exterior form of building has been moderately altered, including the loss of the former schoolroom entrance porch, but its mid-19th century form remains discernible. It is prominently sited on high ground at the northwest end of the village and is an important component of the planned estate buildings.
In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: the 20th century village hall and later toilet addition attached to the north and separate garage block to the north.
Age and Rarity
Hall House was built by private funds as a female industrial school by Mrs Baillie Cochrane and Lady Home with accommodation for one female teacher. The section to the rear with tripartite windows is likely to have been the school room.
The exact date of the building is unknown but was constructed part of the improvements to the village carried out between the 1840s and the 1870s by Alexander Baillie-Cochrane. The building is not shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey Map (surveyed 1859, published 1864). It is first shown on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1896, published 1898) as a roughly square plan building and without the later hall to the rear. The map shows that it had a separate entrance porch to the north elevation which was replaced by the later addition of the hall. In the mid-19th century Lamington also had another school, which was adjacent to the West Lodge of Lamington House.
Lamington Public School was built following 1872 Education (Scotland) Act and is shown at the south end of the village, adjacent to St Ninian's Church, on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey Map. On the 27th May 1912 the log book of the Lamington Public School records that the female school was handed over to the School Board. This ended the local arrangement for single-sex education in Lamington and was the first time boys and girls were taught together in the village. The senior students were taught in the board school and the juniors remained in Hall House School.
On 15th November 1913 The Scotsman held an advert for a female teacher for Lamington School also offering domestic accommodation. This suggests the schoolhouse was still used for accommodation after it was handed over to the school board.
The cottage and former school building ceased to be used as a school sometime between 1913 and 1929, when a village hall was added to the rear of the former school, by Latto Morrison of Biggar. The hall is rectangular in plan and constructed of brick or blockwork and rendered. It has eight over two-pane fixed timber casement windows, boarded doors and a slate roof with a conical metal ridge ventilator. The hall has a later 20th century toilet block addition at its rear. It is plain and utilitarian in its construction style and materials. The droved ashlar stone architrave around the double entrance doors of the hall may have reused stone from the entrance porch to the schoolroom.
Village and community halls built between the First and Second World Wars are not a rare building type. Lamington village hall is a standard and plain example of interwar construction and design with no exceptional design qualities. The village hall and later toilet block addition as well as the separate rendered double garage to the northeast are not considered to be of special interest in listing terms and are excluded from the listing.
Industrial schools provided education to troublesome, poor or orphaned children. As well as teaching pupils to read, write and spell they would be taught technical skills to equip children for the workplace. Generally industrial schools were single-sex and for girls the education typically included needlework, knitting, cookery, laundry and housework. They ranged from residential to day school and were established by philanthropic individuals or charities.
The first industrial school in Scotland was established in 1841 in Aberdeen by Sheriff Watson. The first Industrial Schools Act was passed in 1854 and this enabled a Sheriff to commit a child under 14 to an industrial school (or similar institution). They differed from reformatories schools as they were not a place of punishment. The term industrial school continued until the introduction of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1932.
Industrial schools, especially those in rural villages, are rarer than parish schools as not a large number were built. At present ten former industrial schools are listed, most of which were for females and many were endowed by benevolent landowners. They may be more listed examples that have not been recorded as industrial schools. Listed examples include the Former Female Industrial School in Errol (category B, LB48177) and the Former Duchess of Atholl Girl's Industrial School in Dunkeld (category B, LB5617).
The Hall House, designed in the picturesque cottage orné style, is a rare surviving example of a former female industrial schoolhouse and schoolroom. It was built as part of a planned estate village in the mid to later 19th century and is in keeping stylistically with other houses and buildings in Lamington, including the characteristic use of whinstone rubble with dressed sandstone margins and distinctive diamond pane glazing. The exterior of the building has been moderately altered, including the loss of the former schoolroom entrance porch, but its mid-19th century form is visible and its former use as a school is still recognisable.
Interior
The interior of the hall was seen in 2009. For its building type the interior had standard detailing, including timber boarding to dado height with panel strips applied to painted timber sheeting above the dado. There is also a simple stage at one end. The exposed roof structure is plain with "A" frame trusses and tie rods supporting plain purlins and a boarded timber ceiling.
The interior of the hall is plain in line with its utilitarian use and the limited construction materials that were likely to have been available at the time it was built. The simplicity of the interior design and materials of the hall mean that the interior is not of interest in listing terms.
Plan form
Hall House was designed with domestic accommodation for a female teacher attached to a schoolroom. This arrangement is typical of a pre-1872 Education Act school.
Part of the former schoolroom has been divided and is now linked internally to the hall. It currently (2017) forms the ancillary kitchen areas of the hall.
As the interior of Hall House has not been seen (in 2009 and 2017), the interior plan form is not known. The addition of attic windows indicate that it has likely been altered for a staircase.
Technological excellence or innovation, material or design quality
Hall House has some distinctive architectural details, such as the diamond pane glazing pattern and scalloped shaped bargeboarding features which are common to other buildings in the planned estate village. It also has other details characteristic of estate buildings, including the overhanging eaves with exposed rafter ends and built of whinstone rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings. Externally the building has been altered, particularly by the addition of attic windows and a later hall.
The building stone is likely to have been locally sourced. The New Statistical Account of 1845 notes that there was no public quarry in the parish and stones were taken from rocky spots on Loanhead Hill, Hillhouse at Hartside Burn or the river at Clydesbridge. It states that 'the stone procured is often of a splint description and not very good for building houses, though it is still used for that purpose'. Slate is procured from Stobo in Tweedale or Glenochar in Crawford.
The architect of Hall House and the other estate buildings in the village is not known and a number are associated with the village.
William Spence (1806?-1883) may have been involved in the building of some of the village estate buildings. Spence worked as an assistant to both David Bryce and William Burn. The first house with which he was associated, Coulter Mains house (in the adjacent Coulter Parish), bares elements of the Burn and Bryce influence. The exterior detailing of some of the estate houses in Lamington also have these characteristics.
The Lamington Estate Papers (held in the Mitchell Archive) includes a letter from architect David Bryce in 1838 stating that he encloses his revised, scaled down plans for the shooting lodge at Lamington. It is not known whether he carried out the commission for the shooting lodge which became Lamington House or whether the job was completed by someone else. The architects Wardrop and Brown are known to have carried out a music room addition in 1858.
The architect John Henderson designed the Holy Trinity Chapel (listed at category B, LB7447) in the village for the Baillie-Cochranes in 1857 and the Parsonage slightly to the north in 1960. The Parsonage (now Clannalba, listed at category C, LB7448) has very similar dressed stone and whinstone rubble stonework and the exposed rafter ends and bargeboards to the roof. On this evidence it is possible that he may also have been the architect for the village.
The 1929 village hall is believed to have been added by Latto Morrison (1870-1940)
From 1886 Morrison was an assistant of John Lamb Murray of Biggar and remained until 1898 when he was taken into partnership. When Murray retired in 1905, Morrison became sole partner, continuing the practice under his own name. Little is known about Morrison's work.
Setting
Hall House sits to the northern edge of the planned estate village of Lamington. It is set on higher ground to other buildings in the village. It is an important component of the overall grouping of this mid-19th century planned estate village because of the similarity in design and construction.
Although Lamington House has been demolished the village buildings maintain the character of a planned estate village as they were designed.
Regional variations
There are no known regional variations.
Close Historical Associations
There are no known associations with a person or event of national importance at present (2017).
Statutory address and listed building record revised in 2018. Previously listed as 'Lamington, Hall House and Hall'.