Millburn Tower

Millburn Tower

William Atkinson designed this castellated mansion in 1806, 1815 and circa 1821. It comprises a 2-storey keep with a long single storey Tudor Gothic range to the south and kitchen and office ranges concealed behind Gothic screen walls to the northeast and southeast. The building has an asymmetrical, rambling plan and is constructed in ashlar with battlemented parapets and hoodmoulds throughout.

The Keep (1806) rises two storeys over a raised basement, now blinded. The north elevation is a 3-bay composition with a central entrance bay. Ground and first-floor windows have hipped hoodmoulds. Pentangular battlemented corner towers rise from the corners, their faces punctuated by Tudor-arched windows at ground and first-floor levels and blind arrowslit openings. The towers have platform tops. The parapet between the towers is supported on three deeply-moulded corbels. A low crenellated wall runs along the north side of the courtyard, with a low single-storey storage block against the north wall of the court.

The west elevation displays five bays over the raised basement, with a giant order pilaster at the centre featuring roll-moulded arrises. Segmental-headed windows are regularly disposed to left and right. Broad angle pilasters frame the composition. On the south return, a 3-bay section contains a first-floor window at the outer left and a blind window at the outer right. A jettied, corbelled chimneybreast and stack project from the centre. A square ashlar entrance porch, advanced to the right, has roll-moulded arrises and a segmental-headed door with bolection moulding. Sculpted owl finials in flight crown either end of the parapet.

The single-storey Tudor Gothic range extends to the southeast (1815). A 3-bay block features a centre canted bay with tripartite pointed-arch windows and hoodmoulds. Beyond this stands a plain 3-bay screen wall of the kitchen court. At the centre is a projecting porch (its door now converted to a window) with a segmental-headed door and an arrowloop above, together with a bipartite pointed-arch window to the outer right. A segmental arch with stugged voussoirs and chamfered arrises opens into the kitchen court, with a shaped parapet above. The screen wall adjoins the garden wall to the south.

The south elevation presents a U-plan kitchen court set behind ashlar screen walls on the west and east elevations. The walls are single storey, constructed in stugged squared honey-coloured sandstone. The east return has 2 bays of ashlar with bipartite pointed-arch windows (horizontal glazing) and a single round-headed casement window to the outer right.

The east garden elevation is near-symmetrical. A 3-bay main block sits slightly left of centre, with low single-storey kitchen and office blocks advanced to left and right respectively, the keep rising behind the right block. The centre block is slightly recessed and contains three windows divided by thin gabletted pilasters and a quatrefoil frieze. The left block features a tripartite narrow Tudor Gothic arched window. The right block has three broader Tudor-arched windows. A recessed link block to the right contains a segmental-headed door. The office range (1821) is constructed of squared honey-coloured sandstone on the east elevation with a stugged ashlar parapet. It is symmetrical to the garden in a 3-bay composition with tripartite pointed-arch windows. An armorial panel occupies the parapet above the centre bay. A 2-bay southeast return includes a tripartite window to the outer right with a jettied parapet at the centre. Paired octagonal ashlar stacks rise above. A segmental-headed window faces the outer right.

Windows throughout include modern diamond-pane casements to the keep, 5-pane sash and case windows to the linear range, and 12-pane sash and case windows to the Tudor-arch windows at the rear. A grey slate piended roof, concealed behind the parapets, has paired octagonal ridge stacks.

The interior was completely refurbished in the 1980s. Original plasterwork survives with some remodelling in the main south room. Panels are divided by fluted reeding with raised diamond moulding at the centre and trefoils in the corners; palmette stops mark the junction of each panel. Rib moulding follows the curved ceiling of the bay. A quatrefoil wooden frieze runs above the main windows. A room to the north retains an original floral ceiling cornice and rosette. No other original interior features remain.

A garden store comprises a canted single-storey shed in the re-entrant angle between the main range and garden wall. A boarded door occupies the northwest facet with fleur-de-lis side hinges and bolection moulding, set between two stugged pilasters with angle nook-shafts. A blind segmental-headed door faces the southwest facet.

The walled garden lies immediately south of the house. It has an irregular D-shaped plan measuring approximately 50 by 60 metres, enclosed by a brick wall with ashlar slab coping. A bothy and boiler house remain to the south; part of the original wall was heated. The wall now opens to the kitchen court.