The Stables, Mansewood, Innerwick

The Stables, Mansewood, is a rectangular plan house dating to 1726, which has undergone considerable alteration and extension during the late 18th century and by 1830. It is situated on a sloping site and now presents as a double pile, three-storey structure to the south, and two and one storeys to the 1830 addition to the north. The building is constructed of rendered rubble with chamfered arrises to earlier openings and painted ashlar to those added in the 1820s.

The north (entrance) elevation, a five-bay design of 1830, features a slightly advanced central bay with a pilastered doorpiece, a panelled door, and a semi-circular fanlight. Steps leading to the doorway oversail the basement area, featuring decorative cast-iron railings. Tall, raised ground floor windows are set within the flanking bays, while the basement bays have smaller windows. A blocking course and cornice run across the north elevation. The side elevations are blank and incorporate wallhead stacks.

The south elevation shows four widely spaced bays with windows on each floor, smaller at the centre bays; barred openings illuminate the cellar area. Additions extend from the left. A canted, five-light timber oriel window has been added to the east gable, with two irregular windows above under the eaves. To the west elevation, two windows are visible above a flat-roofed porch set into a basement recess. Two harled ridge stacks are present.

Sash and case windows with 12-pane glazing are characteristic of the 1830 work, with plate glass elsewhere. The original window cans have been retained. Piend roofs cover each parallel block, with lower eaves to the later block, finished with grey slates and lead flashings.

The interior features a winding stone stair with cast-iron balusters, a flagged basement, and a tripartite vestibule screen. The rooms are fitted with panelled window shutters.

Circa 1830, a stable group of L-plan and two storeys is located southwest of the house and constructed of random rubble with droved ashlar dressings. A courtyard is present to the north and west of the main house, containing a three-bay south range with a segmental carriageway to the left and a doorway at the centre, with hayloft openings above; the ground floor incorporates a window by the angle. A first floor window is present on the north range of the courtyard, and a lean-to stone outbuilding is connected by drum piers and a parapet wall to the re-entrant angle. An advanced, single-storey addition is located to the south of the south wing, incorporating a narrow doorway. Boarded doors with small-pane fanlights are used throughout.

Rubble boundary walls with semi-circular coping, highest to the garden at the south, enclose the property, accompanied by three pairs of drum gatepiers, the northwest gatepiers being smaller in scale.

Mansewood served as the manse from the 19th century until recently, and may have been built for that purpose. The 1830 frontage is characteristic of a style later suggested by Loudon in Cottage, Villa and Farm Architecture.