The Murrel

The Murrel is a small Arts and Crafts country house designed by Francis William Deas in 1908. The two-storey building has an irregular plan and is approached through a semicircular sunken entrance courtyard. A curved range attached to the northeast incorporates a two-storey servants' wing, single-storey service wing, steading range, and former racquets court, with a semicircular servants' courtyard. To the east of the house stands a former workshop with a first-floor fruit store, and further east is a motorhouse. The complex is built of squared, snecked sandstone rubble, tooled in places, with predominantly segmental-arched openings. Two garden terraces lie to the south of the house, with a walled garden to the southeast, a raised garden beyond it, and a water garden further south.

The House

The north (entrance) elevation features a round-arched porch flanked by a gabled bay to the right and a rounded stair tower to the left. The central bay has a wide arch opening to centre right into a covered porch, with a large recessed window ahead, a door in the left return, and a narrow window to the left of the archway. The right bay has a narrow horizontal window set high at ground floor level, a first-floor window to the right, and a tall wallhead stack to the left of the gabled bay. Narrow horizontal windows are set back above the catslide porch at first-floor level. The left bay comprises the rounded stair tower with a small ground-floor window to the right and two long first-floor stair windows. The servants' wing continues to the left of the stair tower.

The east elevation has a door to the right in the left bay and a first-floor window to centre left. A bell with a piended roof projects from the centre of the gable, and the right gable is broken by a wallhead stack. The right bay contains large central windows at both ground and first-floor levels. Stone steps descend to a basement with a door and window. A single-storey linking wing to the left of the ground-floor door connects the house to the former workshop and has a window and narrow door in its right return. The servants' wing splays to the east.

The south elevation is curved, with a square-plan buttress at the southwest corner. A centred canted window on a stone base has five leaded panels above decorated with alternating thistle and fruit motifs. Windows flank this feature at ground level, with a first-floor window above the left one. To the right is a window (formerly an open breakfast loggia) with a glazed door. Above the canted window is a first-floor glazed door with flanking windows, with a window to the far right and a narrow window set between the second and third bays.

The west elevation has a wall extending from the left quoin to support the leaded and glazed roof of a verandah, with a door set back to the left and a first-floor window to the left. The gabled bay to the right features a large canted window with a canted stone base built up from the slope to the south. Leaded panels above display the thistle and fruit motif. A central first-floor door with flanking windows matches the arrangement on the south elevation. A flight of stone steps hugs the stone base of the canted window, turning at mid-height to meet the upper stone terrace running to the south elevation. A rockery is set into the descending southwest slope below the house.

Doors are predominantly timber-boarded with strap hinges. Various paned timber casement windows feature central top-hung opening ventilation panes. The roof is pitched and swept, covered with red clay pantiles, with a ribbed polygonal roof to the stair tower. Stone skews have rounded apexes and squared plain skewputts. Stone wallhead stacks and two stone ridge stacks taper at their apexes and have circular clay cans.

The interior of the house includes a square-plan study with a canted window (formerly the dining room) to the south. Oak panelling reaches ceiling height with moulded timber cornice and skirting boards. Boarded oak doors have strap hinges and timber latches and handles. A small rectangular piscina is recessed into the panelling to the right of the door, lined with blue and coloured Delft tiles, with a brass tap and cupboards above and below. A centred, tall moulded polished stone mantelpiece has a tiled surround with a hooded hearth and a ventilation flap set within a timber panel above, with flanking cupboards. A centred buffet recess is set into the west wall. The drawing room is a rectangular room to the west with a large canted window. Oak panelling covers the east wall with a moulded polished stone fireplace at centre, flanking recessed shelves with low cupboards beneath, and oak beams to the ceiling. A fixed timber bench seat runs along all sides of the canted window. The semicircular oak staircase hugs the sides of the stair tower, with a central newel post having a chamfered upper section surmounted by a carved cherub and a saucer dome with modelled plaster above the stair. Bedrooms have fitted washbasins set into Hopton Wood stone pedestal tops.

Servants' and Service Wings and Steading Range

The northwest and northeast elevations show the servants' wing splayed at 45 degrees to the northeast of the house, with the house's stair tower to the right. The sweeping roof has two dormer windows, and three tiny ground-floor windows are arranged above each other to the left of the stair tower. A window appears to the left, followed by a piended first-floor window, and a ground-floor window to the far left below the swept wallhead. The single-storey service wing to the right connects to the steading range and has three windows (the left window has timber shutters and was formerly a coal store). A central covered gateway leads to the service court with flanking swept walls and a window to each flank (the right window has timber shutters and was formerly a coke store). The steading range to the northeast of the gateway includes a stable with a door to the left, a pair of small windows set close to the eaves to the right, a plain wall of the racquets court to the left with a door to the far left, and a byre to the right of the stable with a door to the left, a small window set close to the eaves to the right, and a further pair of doors to the right leading to the men's WC and former wood store. Several pantiles are raised in the roof of the byre and stable for ventilation.

The southeast and southwest elevations show the servants' wing adjoined to the house at an angle, with three ground-floor windows and a door set between the second and third windows. A swept wallhead to the far right joins the single-storey service wing, which has various openings and a very tall wallhead stack to the washhouse. A centred gateway has a pair of facing doors in the passageway, with swept wallheads to left and right and flanking doors beneath (the right door leads to the former dairy). The slightly advanced washhouse to the left of the gateway has a centred door with flanking windows. Various openings appear to the right of the gateway. The advanced racquets court to the right shows the recessed termination of the steading wing to the east, with a pair of doors and a passageway to the motorhouse to the right.

Windows and doors are similar to those of the house. Roofs are predominantly piended and covered with red clay pantiles. A ridge stack rises from the servants' wing, and a ridge light well illuminates the racquets court.

The interior of the servants' wing has a large kitchen at ground level in its original location, with the servants' morning room to the adjacent northeast converted to a second kitchen. A servants' back stair to the rear links the ground and first floors. The first-floor former servants' bedrooms and stores have been converted to a large single bedroom. The washhouse contains a washboiler on the southwest wall with white glazed tiles and a copper wash pot with ivy leaf detail on the handle. The stable has a swept timber stall divider, stone troughs at ground level, and ventilation openings to the roof space. The byre has a timber stall divider, timber hay feeder on the wall, stone troughs at ground level, and a false ceiling. The racquets court has a timber floor with faint court line traces and a false ceiling. A narrow, steep timber staircase to the southeast leads to an enclosed small viewing gallery set above the court to the southeast.

Former Workshop with Screen Wall

The two-storey, single-bay, square-plan workshop is set to the east of the house and connected to it by a single-storey linking wing. The south elevation has a centred ground-floor window and a bull's-eye window at first-floor level. The west elevation is attached to the house at ground level by the single-storey wing, with a rectangular window at first-floor level. The north elevation has a stone forestair running from centre to left, a centred window at ground level, and a bull's-eye window at first-floor level. The east elevation has a forestair running from right to left, a small understair door to the right, two narrow windows to centre and left, and a central first-floor door. Three circular clay ventilators in a triangular arrangement are set in each gable head.

The timber-boarded door has strap hinges. Various paned timber casement windows include leaded panes to the bull's-eye windows. Each elevation has a gable forming a cruciform plan, with red clay pantiled roofs. Stone sandstone skews have rounded apexes and squared plain skewputts. A wallhead stack rises at the northeast corner.

A high screen wall runs from the workshop to the motorhouse, with a courtyard to the north and a garden terrace to the south. A door is set close to the workshop, and three thick, stepped rectangular-plan buttresses run along the centre and right of the south wall, which has a pantiled wallhead.

Motorhouse

The tall, square-plan motorhouse stands to the far east of the screen wall, with two sides set within the walled garden on the descending south slope. The ground-floor north elevation is open with sliding timber garage doors. A row of small windows below the eaves has a later inserted row of windows below. A central hoist door breaks the eaves with the hoist in situ. The east wall is plain, with the steading range attached to the west. The tall south garden elevation, rising due to the slope, has three bull's-eye windows set close to the eaves and a window at right near ground level illuminating a car pit.

The piended roof is swept at the eaves and covered with red clay pantiles. A dovecot sits at the apex above flight holes to each elevation.

Terraced Garden

The terraced garden to the south of the house steps down southward, with terraces running the full length of the house and wings. The raised, buttressed and coped upper stone terrace has a broad walkway with a lawned area and a gravel path set close to the terrace wall. Eight stepped, thick full-height rectangular buttresses support the wall. An open section of wall near the house has balusters supporting a handrail. The lower stone rubble terrace contains a rose garden running southward. A steep slope descends southward to a small triangular-shaped orchard.

Walled Garden

The walled garden is located to the southeast of the service wing. The snecked sandstone rubble wall has red clay pantiles to the wallheads. A rectangular outshot (possibly a potting shed) is centred at a shallow curved section to the north outer wall, with various openings and a doorway to the garden set at the curve to the northwest. The garden is set into the descending south slope, with stepped walls to west and east running down the slope. The gabled section of each stepped wallhead is decorated with tiles in a zigzag design. The very tall south wall has a central doorway with ten regularly arranged tall, stepped buttresses to the outer wall. Stairs and circular stone gatepiers with shallow stone dome coping link the garden to the raised terrace to the west, with a doorway at the foot of the stair linking the garden with the lower terrace. A glass canopy with large timber arched brackets is set against the shallow curved central section of the north inner wall. A timber-framed lean-to glasshouse with a brick base stands within the northeast corner of the walled garden.

Raised Garden

The raised garden is located to the south of the walled garden (formerly a rose garden, originally a tennis court). Built into the south descending slope, it has a raised upper terrace to the north with a gravel path running west to east and centred steps descending to the lower terrace. The lower terrace is raised by low stone rubble retaining walls with yew hedging above, and centred flights of steps descend to west, east, and south. Large rectangular flower beds are intersected by four stone paths radiating from a central sunken pond (empty in 2002) with a sundial at its centre.

Water Garden

The water garden consists of a canalised section of Dour Burn running east to west to the south of the raised garden, with a pathway running adjacent. The burn is channelled over a rough stone cascade built into the southwest slope, with descending stone steps adjacent to the cascade and a small gorge lined with ferns. A small timber footbridge crosses the burn to the southwest of the raised garden. The burn turns sharply to the southwest, emptying into a large pond to the south of the main house.