No 12 Cottage, Crichton

No. 12 Cottage is a group of six farmworkers’ cottages dated 1885, designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, with a mid-20th century extension. They are situated in Crichton and were originally constructed to house workers from the nearby Crichton Mains farmhouse, also designed by Anderson.

The cottages present as a symmetrical range with advanced gabled ends flanking a central arch. They are built of coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings. The principal (southeast) elevation features a central gable with a pointed-arched pend built with rubble voussoirs, a hood mould, and an inset architraved date stone below the gablehead. Plain stone skews are present, and the roof is slate covered with small stone stacks flanking the ridge. Four cottages flank the archway; each has a flush surround with a tripartite window on the right side of the doorway and a bipartite window to the left. Two stone stacks are positioned to either row, while the end cottages feature an entrance doorway and a window in the re-entrant angles, with gable ends and a window with a circular window above.

The southwest elevation displays a single-storey, flat-roofed extension to the return of No. 9 Cottage, along with a high rubble chimney stack with a stone neck cope. The northwest (rear) elevation has its original form mostly obscured by flat-roofed extensions to the central four cottages and further extensions to the rear of No. 13. A similar flat-roofed extension is present on the northeast elevation, along with a high rubble chimney stack with a stone neck cope.

The front windows are 6-pane, slightly bowed bipartite and tripartite casement designs. The roof is graded slate piended, with modern Velux roof lights to the rear pitch. The chimneys have a single can to a short stack and a triple can to the high stack, with paired plain cans.

The interior was not inspected in 2000.

Originally, each cottage had its own small front garden, a shared drive and rear drying green, and a small outhouse and toilet. Later additions included small flat-roofed kitchen/bathroom extensions to the rear or side. These have since been replaced with larger additions, diminishing the original simplicity of the rear elevation. The front elevation and gardens are now enclosed by a hedge and a low rubble wall.