Ferndene, Shore Road, Cove

Ferndene, Shore Road, Cove

An early 19th century villa with mid to later 19th century additions, almost certainly designed by Alexander Thomson. The building is a two-storey, asymmetrical, rambling-plan villa with Tudoresque details. It is constructed from whinstone and sandstone rubble with harl pointing, polished sandstone margins and dressings, and chamfered reveals. The structure features a base course, string courses, eaves moulding, and quoin strips throughout.

The north-west (main) elevation comprises a three-bay gabled block with a porch set in a re-entrant angle to the outer right. Two gabled, bipartite dormerheads are symmetrically disposed in the outer left bays. At the centre ground level stands a large square projecting porch built in ashlar on a rubble base with lead coping and stop-chamfered arrises. This porch contains full-height timber transomed and mullioned windows, with steps up to a former door on the left return. A three-centre arched gate to the rear of the house is attached to the outer left. To the right, a broad gable features a canted window at the centre ground with an ashlar transom and mullion, above which sits a tripartite window with a hoodmould and trefoil detail in a triangular plaque; the gable is topped with a gabletted finial. A tripartite porch in the re-entrant angle to the right has octagonal piers with sawtooth polygonal conical caps and ball finials. An ashlar step and balustrade lead to a three-centre arched arcade on colonettes, with a door at the centre that is half-glazed and multi-paned with decorative diamond glazing. Flanking leaded windows contain stained glass with blind trefoil decoration above. An eaves band features gabletted details. A narrow blind gabled bay to the outer right contains a blind three-centre arched window with pierced trefoil in the arch-head and a ball finial, topped with cast-iron cresting.

The south-west elevation is asymmetrical, with the original house to the left and a later 19th century two-bay block advanced to the outer right. The right return of the porch to the outer left has a tripartite window. A gable to the right features a square ashlar coped window at ground level and a bipartite transomed and mullioned window above; a tripartite window at first floor has a stepped hoodmould. The later 19th century piend-roofed block to the outer right has broad chamfered sides, with a quadripartite window occupying most of the ground floor and a stepped hoodmould above. Paired bipartite dormerheaded windows are symmetrically disposed at first floor level.

The south-east (rear) elevation contains a later 19th century block to the outer left with various openings at ground level and a dormerheaded bipartite window at the centre; a window to the left is now blocked. A two-bay right return has a door and three windows at ground level, with two narrow dormerheaded windows at first floor (four-pane over six-pane plate glass sash and case). A tall, coped stack with an octagonal can stands at the centre. The rear of the earlier house is cement-harled with sandstone margins and dressings, featuring some blocked openings and narrow dormerheaded windows with two-over three-lying pane glazing.

Plate glass timber sash and case windows appear on the main elevation, with four-pane over six-pane sash and case windows and two-over three-lying pane windows on the rear. The roof is covered in grey slate with ashlar coping to the skews and skewputts; sandstone corniced apex stacks with circular cans (some of which are replacements) crown the building.

The interior features an oak stair with a gabletted newel post topped with a ball finial and panelled timber under the stair. The remainder of the building has been largely modernised.

The boundary wall and gatepiers, designed by Alexander Thomson in 1863, consist of stepped whinstone and sandstone rubble with block whinstone coping. Narrow yellow sandstone margined arrowslits are regularly disposed along the wall. A whinstone drum pier with a sandstone cornice supports a large bell-shaped cap with an ashlar finial. The gatepier to the left has been removed.