Head Gardener's House, Buxley, Manderston House

Head Gardener's House, Buxley, Manderston House

John Kinross designed this house in 1897. It is a two-storey, L-plan building in the Scottish Renaissance style, drawing inspiration from Argyll's Lodging in Stirling and Heriot's Hospital in Edinburgh. The building features a first floor that breaks the eaves line, and a round stair tower set in the external angle between the two ranges. The walls are harled (rough-cast) with ashlar coping to the base course and ashlar dressings throughout. Details include quasi-buckle quoins, a roll-moulded eaves course, and chamfered arrises.

The south elevation contains a two-bay south wing. A substantial open-sided classical ashlar porch, modelled on Argyll's Lodging, sits to the left with architraved surrounds to its openings. These are flanked by fluted pilasters on pedestals, with crescent moons carved above the south pilasters, a fleuron to each side, and carved feathers to the frieze and cornice above. The porch has a pediment containing a strapwork cartouche and datestone reading 1897, with ball finials flanking it and a crescent at the apex. The roof is leadwork. The door is boarded with a wrought-iron handle in Kinross's characteristic manner. To the right is a bay containing a large ground-floor window and a smaller first-floor window flanked by pilasters, topped by a cornice and an ornately carved strapwork dormerhead after those at Heriot's Hospital. A return gable to the left has a narrow leaded window at ground level.

The round tower occupies the re-entrant angle formed between the gables of the south and west ranges, following the precedent of the Old Union at St Andrews. It is squat in proportion with narrow windows to the upper stages, each adorned with carved low-relief strapwork surrounds. The roof is conical with a leaded apex.

The west elevation contains a two-bay west wing. A window at ground level sits to the right; to the left are single-storey outbuildings. Two first-floor windows match the detailing of those on the south wing.

The north elevation shows the gable end of the west wing, abutted by lower two-storey cottages from an earlier residential court.

The east elevation reveals the rear of the west wing, recessed to the right and abutted at ground level by lean-to implement sheds from the farm court. Above these is a window set close under the eaves within the re-entrant angle formed with the south wing, featuring a strapwork carved surround matching those on the tower. The blind gable end of the south wing to the left displays a carved ashlar armorial panel for the Miller family in the gablehead, executed in high-relief with egg-and-dart and fluted surrounds and low-relief strapworked setting. The Miller motto "Omne Bonum Superne" appears in a panel below. A garden wall abuts the outer left.

Throughout, windows are multi-pane glazing in timber sash and case frames. The roof is covered in graded grey slates. Ashlar coped skews with angled skewputts and ashlar gablehead stacks with billeted cornices and battered ashlar coping are throughout. Ashlar ridges run across the roof. Decorative lead rainwater hoppers, downpipes and fixtures complete the exterior detailing.

Interior

The interior contains a fine, period-appropriate decorative scheme. Door surrounds are ashlar with roll mouldings. One door has an ogeed lintel with an in-set door bearing a heraldic shield and the initials "JPM" and "EMC" carved above. Another features a deep overdoor stone carved with "Omne Bonum Superne", flanked by a rose and thistle. Segmental-pedimented timber chimneypieces feature high-relief carved stone panels of flower-filled vases at their centre, with decorative cast-iron slips.

Outbuildings

An earlier 19th-century single-storey range runs east-west. It is constructed of harled rubble with ashlar dressings to later openings, and timber jambs and lintels to the original openings. The roof is graded grey slates. The south (garden) elevation has three doors, each flanked by a square window to the right with latticed timber grilles, and a further window to the outer right. The north elevation faces the earlier court with stone buttresses, a door and a six-pane sash and case window to the outer left bay, and doors to the penultimate left and right bays. A short section of screen wall to the west is surmounted by a shallow-bowled urn finial. A brick wallhead stack sits at the piend-roofed west end.

Boundary Walls and Gateways

The garden walls are squared and snecked rubble with gablet ashlar coping and intermittent fleuron finials to the east wall and quasi-buckle quoins to the angles. The east gateway has architraved surrounds on the garden side with a cornice, carved capital detail and low-relief strapwork pediment. The outer side has an architraved opening swept into an ogee above the lintel. The south gateway features a strapwork carved frieze and cornice on the garden side, a strapworked cartouche over the outer lintel with a fleuron finial and flanking fleurons. A fine wrought-iron gate is set within a margin of climbing roses, with a panel bearing the gilded Miller family motto. A terminal pier by the hedge is gablet-capped ashlar with an armorial panel in a fluted surround and a rose finial.