Clayton House (now flatted)

Clayton House is an earlier 19th-century, two-storey, three-bay house of T-plan form, dating to around 1830, set at the centre of a former country estate now in use as a residential caravan park near St Andrews, Fife. The house is closely enclosed by mature trees and is not visible from the wider caravan site. It was converted to flats in the 1980s and was unoccupied at the time of the most recent survey in 2021.

Exterior

The house is built in coursed rubble with ashlar margins and an eaves band course linking the lintels of the first-floor windows. The principal, southeast-facing elevation is symmetrical and features a central stone entrance canopy with a decorative frieze carried on paired fluted Doric columns, flanked on either side by stone mullioned bay windows. The windows have ashlar quoins and cills, and there are blind first-floor windows to the side elevations. Two small dormer windows sit in the roof. The roofs are slated and finished with wide shouldered ashlar wallhead stacks with decorative clay chimney pots.

The windows are a mixture of plate glazing, 12-pane timber sash and case, and a non-traditional multi-pane style to the doors in the side wings. To either side of the main block are symmetrical single-storey piended wings.

Alterations of the 1880s

Later alterations carried out in the 1880s, attributed to Fife-based architect James Ross Gillespie (1854–1914), introduced the canted four-light ground-floor windows and added paired rear extensions at either side of the house. These additions extended the footprint of the building broadly to its present form, as confirmed by the second edition Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1893 and published in 1894. The 1880s alterations were sympathetically scaled and detailed, retaining the symmetry of the principal elevation, and the two construction phases remain clearly distinguishable. Gillespie was a St Andrews-based architect whose commissions included works for the linoleum mills in Kirkcaldy and, later, major projects for the University of St Andrews, St Leonards School, and substantial additions to the Royal and Ancient Golf Clubhouse. His practice was largely focused on alterations to existing country estates rather than new builds.

Interior

The interior was not inspected at the time of survey in 2021. Photographs provided by the owner in 2020 show that the interior retains a substantial amount of mid- to later 19th-century decorative detail. The plasterwork includes decorative cornices, niches on the stairwell, and a fine decorative coffered ceiling in a principal room at the southwest of the house. There are panelled timber doors, shutters, some dado panelling, and a main timber stair with decorative timber balusters. A number of fireplaces and fire surrounds dating from the mid to late 19th century also survive. A condition report of 2005 described the interior as arranged as a five-bedroom house with a separate self-contained one-bedroom flat.

A panel and shield dated 1856 was noted in a previous listing record but was not seen during the 2021 survey.

Historical Development

The Dictionary of Scottish Architects dates Clayton House to around 1830. An advertisement in the Fifeshire Journal of 31 December 1840 offered the house for sale, describing it as "a modern mansion-house" with offices, a garden with walks, and 66 acres of land, suggesting it had been recently built. Clayton House first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map, surveyed in 1854 and published in 1855, which shows the house in roughly T-plan form with a central ancillary section to the rear. The map also shows a walled garden with unusual angled corners to the northeast, a steading with a circular horse mill to the southwest, a gate lodge to the northeast, and an ornamental meadow on the sloping ground to the southeast of the house.

The Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1853–55 records that Clayton House was owned by John Black Esquire, describing it as "a handsome villa with offices and a large garden and lawn attached." A contemporary society reference, The Patrician VIII (1848), notes that John Black had a son in 1847, and newspaper articles record daughters born in 1851 and 1853 at Clayton House. Black is believed to have been the original owner and possibly the person who commissioned the house.

The 1856 date panel, no longer visible, may have marked a change of ownership. A newspaper article from 1857 records the marriage of a daughter of Mr William Pagan, of Clayton House, suggesting he had taken ownership around that time. William Pagan was a banker and was listed as a founding trustee of the Cupar Property Investment Company, formed under an act of Parliament and recorded in the Dundee People's Journal of 6 April 1861, indicating that the house was occupied by a person of local prominence at that time.

The Clayton Estate was advertised for sale again on 6 September 1871, as recorded in the Dundee Courier. The new owner after that date may have been responsible for commissioning the 1880s alterations and additions by James Ross Gillespie. Later 19th-century developments to the wider estate included the addition of a greenhouse and a gasometer to the walled garden, and a second entrance gate lodge to the west of the house. Between 1882 and 1907, the estate was advertised for rent as a desirable residence for long-term lets or as summer quarters for city gentlemen, as recorded in the Dundee Advertiser of 30 June 1882 and the St Andrews Citizen of 30 March 1907.

Setting and Later Changes

The estate has been used as a caravan site since 1966. Static caravans now extend over a large area of the former grounds, including the ornamental meadow to the south and east. A later 20th-century house spans the north wall of the walled garden, which now contains a tennis court. The steading buildings were replaced by service buildings in the later 20th century, some of which appear to have incorporated stone from the demolished steading. Despite these changes, the earlier 19th-century walled garden with its unusually angled corners and both the northeast and west gate lodges survive largely in their 19th-century forms, helping to convey the former layout and character of the estate.