Manse, Glebe Road, Beith

Manse, Glebe Road, Beith

Built in 1797, this is a three-bay, two-storey building with attic storey, arranged in an L-plan and formerly used as a manse. The principal elevation features a central enclosed porch with a timber-panelled two-leaf door set between flanking pilasters. Further pilasters flank the single windows to each side return, with a cornice above. The roof carries two piended dormers. The walls are finished in painted, lined stucco over a base course, with ashlar margins to angles and windows, and a moulded eaves cornice.

The rear (south-west) elevation incorporates a gabled bay with two ground floor windows and a single first floor window to the right. The re-entrant features a first floor round-arched bipartite window, with an angled corbelled window to its left. The south-east elevation has a gabled bay to the right containing a ground floor window with a first floor window above, and to the left a bay with a piended porch and single window to the right with a first floor window above. The north-west elevation shows a gabled bay with two ground floor windows and two first floor windows (one being a dummy), with a single storey modern extension to the outer right.

Windows throughout are timber sash and case with plate glass in four-pane configuration and smaller upper sashes, installed during mid-19th century alterations that likely replaced original 18th century twelve-pane glazing. The roof is finished in grey slates with straight skews and coped end stacks fitted with later clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods complete the external fabric.

The interior, as seen in 2002, has been subdivided following a 1985 conversion into four separate dwellings. An inner door to the vestibule retains an original fanlight above a modern glazed door. The central enclosed straight stair serves the building. A former dining room features a segmental-arched buffet niche flanked by a press cupboard (door now removed) and an original timber-panelled door to the kitchen. The first floor rear room is distinguished by an elaborate Victorian cornice, another mid-19th century addition.

The boundary comprises a random rubble wall to the south-west. To the west at Glebe Road stand a pair of square ashlar gatepiers set on plinths, crowned with corniced pyramidal caps. Cast-iron gates with fleur-de-lys motif complete the entrance.

The manse occupies high ground adjacent to the glebe, still in use as open pasture and for cattle shows and events, and situated a short distance from Beith High Church (separately listed). It superseded an earlier building on the same site, as evidenced by mapping records, and was built to serve Beith Old Parish Church (separately listed) at the Cross, which dates from the late 16th century. The imposing pilastered porch gives architectural distinction to what is otherwise a plain three-bay villa form.

The building was constructed during the ministry of Robert McVey, who served the town from 1796 to 1811. Beith's heritors—the parish landowners—funded both the manse and a new church built between 1807 and 1810. The heritors included the Patricks of Trearne, Mure of Caldwell, Lady Montgomerie of Crawfield, William Patrick of Roughwood, and the Earl of Eglinton. The contractors Messrs Connell and Stark secured the contract for the manse at a cost of £583, successfully bidding against James Findlater. John Connell and William Harvie, masons, subsequently contracted for the new church in 1802. The original manse complex included a stable block, now demolished.

Mid-19th century alterations introduced the plate glass fenestration, dormers, and first floor cornice work. By the mid to late 20th century the building had fallen into disrepair and was converted into four dwellings in 1985 as part of a repair programme. The building appears on Andrew Armstrong's map of 1775 and John Ainslie's map of 1821, and is marked on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858.