Newmills House And Currie Riggs, 1 And 3 Newmills Road, Currie

Newmills House and Currie Riggs, 1 and 3 Newmills Road, Currie

A substantial property dating from the later 18th century, with additions made in the late 19th century, around 1935, and later still. The buildings now comprise two houses. The complex is a 2-storey structure with an attic storey, arranged on an L-plan across 3 bays. The front is ashlar-faced, while the rear and parts of the building are rubble with harl rendering. Number 3 Newmills Road is distinguished by white-painted harl with grey-painted sandstone dressings. The buildings incorporate blocking courses, string courses, and quoins.

The north-east elevation presents a 4-bay façade with a single-storey bay to the outer left, later stores at the north-west corner, and a slightly advanced central bay. The main entrance features a pilastered and corniced polished sandstone doorcase with paterae detail above the pilasters, a 9-panelled flush door, a plate glass fanlight with an Edinburgh handle, and a window above. The outer left bay contains mid-19th-century full-height canted windows, with symmetrically disposed windows in the bays to the right, the outer right window positioned lower. Two canted slate-hung dormers appear above. A single-storey block stands against the south-east gable with a blind window. A circa-1950s cement-rendered block, advanced at the north-east corner and facing south-east, comprises 2 bays with a segmental-headed timber window to the outer left and a glazed 2-leaf door.

The south-west (rear) elevation shows a 4-bay main block with a former kitchen and laundry wing at the north-west corner, originally single-storey but raised to 2-storey in the late 19th century. A tall stair window occupies the centre, with symmetrically disposed windows in the bay to the right. A modern rubble-faced single-storey block is recessed to the outer right. A gabled porch with a half-glazed modern door stands at the penultimate bay to the left, with a small window above and a first-floor window to the outer left. A 4-bay cement-rendered wing features asymmetrically disposed windows with bipartite windows at the first floor outer left and a square dormer at the outer right.

The south-east elevation is gabled, with a window off-centre to the left at the centre first floor, two small windows symmetrically disposed at the gablehead, and a small window at ground left. A heavily-pointed rubble piend-roofed block advanced at ground level to the outer right against the garden boundary wall contains multi-paned windows.

The north-west elevation, Number 3 Newmills Road, Currie Riggs, displays white-painted render with grey-painted sandstone and a rendered and coped boundary wall. To the left, a 2-bay block has windows symmetrically disposed at first floor. To the right, a 2-bay piend and platform-roofed block features wallhead stacks. A flat-roofed, canted single-storey addition at ground level includes a 2-leaf glazed door and a glazed canted corner, with a first-floor window to the outer left and a swept dormer at the centre. A stepped wallhead stack stands to the right. A stepped advanced flue and stack appear at the right return with a tripartite window. A south-west gable to the right has a modern ground-level window at the outer left and a first-floor opening, the lower portion of which is blocked as a smaller window. A square tripartite dormer sits at the roof centre.

The buildings are roofed in grey slate, with piend and platformed sections at the wing and sandstone coped apex stacks at the main house. Currie Riggs has rendered and coped wallhead stacks. Windows throughout are predominantly 12-pane sash and case, though Number 3 Currie Riggs includes a modern multi-paned window.

The interior of the main house retains a good columned vestibule with stone cantilevered stairs and cast-iron balusters, finished with delicate plasterwork featuring shell and floral rosettes.

The garden is bounded by a high rubble wall with ashlar coping, curved at the north corner with a wooden garden door leading to the main front. A yew topiary hedge bounds areas to the south-east and south-west, the south-west hedge now heavily pruned. Foundation remains of a draw-well (now blocked) lie at the north end of the garden. Honey-coloured sandstone gatepiers stand immediately to the left of the south-east gable, leading to the kitchen area, with a rubble wall of harl pointing and semicircular coping that sweeps down to a low wall. Six ashlar-lined segmental-headed bee-boles are set in the wall's thickness. The wall sweeps upwards towards the west end, with a small brick-based greenhouse positioned against it to the west.

To the east stands a rectangular-plan 2-storey stable with rubble-fronted brick construction. Two ground openings appear at the outer left, a cart door at the outer right with a rubble and brick bothy advanced to the right, and a bipartite gabled window, formerly a hoist breaking the eaves. The upper floor and west elevation are now converted to domestic use. A single-storey curved rubble wall extends to the right of the bothy.

The west elevation begins with a curved section at the north end, facing north onto Currie Riggs ground, constructed of rubble with droved and stugged sandstone margins. A ground window sits at the outer left, and a boarded hoist door breaks the eaves at the curve. A large ground window occupies the bay to the right with a small barred granary-type window above. A taller domestic block to the outer right on Newmills Farm land features a half-gable breaking the eaves at its centre, a window to the right, a tall stack to the left, and a tall narrow brick stack to the right of the gable. Long rectangular-plan rubble stables and stores aligned west-east complete the range. All are roofed in grey slate.

The boundary along Newmills Road comprises low rubble walls with slab coping, with sandstone gatepiers topped by ashlar pyramidal caps.