Strafontane Mill, Abbey St Bathans

Strafontane Mill, Abbey St Bathans

This substantial house began as an earlier 19th-century building. It was heightened in the mid 19th century, then partly rebuilt and enlarged in two stages during the later 19th century, circa 1870-80. The building was subdivided in the late 20th century. It now forms three separate properties.

The structure is asymmetrical in plan, roughly L-shaped, with two storeys plus an attic. It is constructed of harled rubble whinstone, with exposed stone in parts, and cream sandstone dressings. The ground-floor porch features coursed and stugged cream sandstone. A raised base course runs along parts of the building. The eaves are overhanging with timber brackets, and decorative timber bargeboards ornament the gables. Some gableheads contain kingpost trusses. The building has narrow strip quoins and sandstone margins to windows, mostly square-headed and shouldered in form. Mullions are in sandstone, with some decorative window surrounds to the northwest elevation. Cills are projecting.

The southwest (entrance) elevation is seven bays wide. A two-storey gabled bay projects to the outer left, featuring a segmental-arched window at ground level and a single window at first floor, with projecting corbelled detail beneath the apex. The entrance is a two-leaf timber panelled door in an advanced gabled porch to the right, set within a polished sandstone surround with roll-moulding and shouldering. A coat of arms appears in an architraved panel above the door. The porch has an overhanging bargeboarded gable with a tapering timber finial. A recessed two-storey gabled bay to the right contains a segmental-arched window at ground level (offset right of centre) with an inscribed rectangular panel above, and a single window at first floor. A three-bay wing extends right from this point, with a jerkin-headed porch projecting at its centre. Bipartite windows sit at ground level in the flanking bays, with gableheaded windows breaking the eaves above and jerkin-headed dormers aligned above these. An advanced gabled wing to the outer right has a bipartite window at ground and a corbelled two-light canted window centred beneath the apex within a deep chamfered surround. A single-storey lean-to addition extends beyond.

The northwest (side) elevation comprises six bays, grouped 2-1-1-2, with a corbelled turret to the outer left and an octagonal tower set behind, surrounded by an outer walkway at ground level. The taller two-bay wing to the left features a projecting four-light window centred at ground level beneath an overhanging bracketed canopy, with single windows in both bays at first floor. A gabled window breaks the eaves in the right-hand bay, with a corbelled cill and decorative motif centred in the lintel. A single window is centred beneath the gable in the left-hand bay, with corbelled cill, pilastered surround, and carved tympanum detail. A corbelled turret is engaged to the outer left, containing single windows in each facet and crowned with a decorative finial above a conical spire. The next bay to the right features a round-arched hollow detail at ground level, with a corbelled three-light bowed oriel above and a decorative finial surmounting a spire. An advanced bay to the right has a tripartite window at ground level with a single window aligned at first floor and a narrow light in the adjacent bay to the right. A round sandstone panel breaks the eaves above, flanked by a keystoned round-arched pediment. A jerkin-headed finialed dormer is centred in a polygonal spire, with a finial above. The two-bay wing advanced to the outer right contains a segmental-arched window at ground in the left-hand bay with a gableheaded bipartite window breaking the eaves above, and a three-light canted window at ground in the right-hand bay with a gableheaded single window breaking the eaves above. A jerkin-headed bipartite dormer is centred between the bays, topped with a finial.

Windows throughout are predominantly timber sash and case, with some timber casement windows. The roofs are of graded grey slate, with fish-scale detailing to the conical and polygonal spires. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted. Coped brick ridges and apex stacks have octagonal barley-sugar cans.

Interior

The building is subdivided to form three separate properties.

The west wing contains a tiled vestibule floor. Timber panelled dado panelling lines the walls, and there is a polished grey sandstone fireplace with intricate foliate cornice work above. The ceiling is panelled plaster with embossed detailing. A dog-leg stair with balustered barley-sugar uprights, timber handrail, and timber treads ascends to an arcaded half-landing, where regularly-spaced square-plan carved columns support architraved and keystoned depressed arches. The drawing room features decorative cornice work and embossed ceiling detailing. The dining room displays detailed cornice work featuring grapes and vines, a plaster panelled ceiling, and a marble fireplace. Throughout this wing, timber panelled doors with shouldered and architraved timber surrounds are fitted, along with timber skirting boards and timber panelled shutters.

The library wing has timber panelled dado to the drawing room with decorative cornices and panelled plaster ceilings. Decorative timber panelled shutters are in place, and some original fireplaces remain. The former billiard room features a boarded timber combed ceiling. An attic stair with barley-sugar uprights, timber newels, timber handrails, and barley-sugar posts links corbelled arches above. The flat was not seen at the time of survey in 1997.

Boundary Features

Rubble whinstone boundary walls enclose the site to the road, coped with sandstone (stepped with sandstone coping near the entrance). Wrought-iron railings with latticed base panels are fitted to finialed newels. Corniced polygonal iron gateposts with moulded finials flank the entrance, with latticed inverted-arched pedestrian gates on either side of a central vehicular gate.