Elvingston

Elvingston

A 2-storey mansion with attic and basement designed by John Tait in 1837, built in Jacobean-Baronial style. The main house is constructed of stugged grey ashlar with base course, string course, eaves course, and moulded surrounds to openings, with stone mullions throughout. Single storey service wings adjoin the main block.

The south elevation presents three asymmetrical bays. An advanced gabled entrance bay at the centre features a depressed archway leading to a depressed arch of tripartite doorway. Above the door sits a heraldic panel inscribed with "Pietas Tutissima Virtus", overstepped by a string course, with two blank shields flanking below. A strapworked stone balustrade with panelled stone dies runs across. A gabled panel projects slightly to the outer right bay, containing tripartite windows to ground and first floor and a small single attic window in the gablehead. The outer bay to the left is also gabled, with single windows to each floor, the ground floor window being the tallest.

The east elevation features an advanced gable bay to the right with a bipartite window at ground floor, single windows to basement, first and attic floors, and glazed narrow slits on the return. A 4-stage circular stair tower is set in a re-entrant angle, with a doorway to the basement and a window to each stage. A mannered pediment breaks the eaves above the fourth stage window, topped by a slated conical roof with tapering ball finial. A gabled bay to the outer left is intercepted by the tower, with single windows to each floor.

The west elevation comprises three bays. French doors open to the basement at the centre. Slightly projecting gabled bays stand to left and right, while a canted bay with a short flight of steps adjoins the outer right bay at ground level, featuring bipartite French windows and an ashlar balustrade, with single windows to each floor above and tripartite windows in the outer left bay, plus a single attic window.

The north elevation displays five bays, with three gabled bays interspersed by narrower second and fourth bays. The fourth bay contains a tripartite window. Raised chimney stacks flank the outer bays, with windows to each floor of the centre bay. Two gabled projecting single storey service wings stand at ground level, each one bay wide, adjoined to the right of the centre bay and to the outer left corner. A depressed arch window appears in the gable end of the latter wing.

The windows throughout display a variety of glazing patterns, with sash and case windows predominating, curved glass in the stair tower windows of the east elevation, and plate glass in various locations. Gablet coped skews feature consoled skewputts, and stone finials crown the gables. Polygonal and clustered diamond chimney stacks with moulded coping rise from the roof, though those to the left gablehead of the north elevation are currently shorn off (as of 1988). Grey slates cover the roof, with skylights and one small piend roofed dormer to the west.

Interior features include a coffered ceiling to the hall with plaster roses and strapworked plaster ceilings throughout. A yellow marble Louis chimneypiece adorns the hall. Doors are architraved, and a decorative timber stair balustrade and winding stair within the tower complete the principal features.

A stable court lies adjacent to the main house. The stable range is built in Tudor style as a single storey structure with hayloft, consisting of five wide bays. It is constructed of grey rubble sandstone with ashlar dressings and polygonal towers.

The north elevation of the stable range features a wide 4-centred porch entrance to a gabled bay at the centre, breaking the eaves, with a round arched hayloft door. A blank shield appears at the apex. Polygonal towers flank the entrance, each with arrow slits and drums at impost level featuring blinded quatrefoil gunports and slated candle snuffer roofs. Bipartite windows fill the flanking bays, with doorways in the outer bays topped by top-hopper fanlights. Gabled hayloft dormerheads crown the bays flanking the centre, each with round arched openings.

The south elevation displays seven bays, with a slightly advanced gabled bay at the centre topped by two polygonal wallhead stacks and a window. Three stable windows flank each side, with an additional window to the right of centre and gabled hayloft dormers detailed as above in the penultimate bays. The original stall division is retained in the interior. A narrow stone newel stair serves the hayloft in the east tower. Stone finials crown the gables and dormers, with bracketed skewputts completing the detailing.

An adjoining carriage range consists of four bays in gabled single storey form. Four depressed arch carriage doors open to the east elevation. Skewputts and finials to the gables match those of the stable range.