Factor's House, The Glen

Factor's House, The Glen

Built around 1856 for Sir Charles Tennant, this picturesque-style former Factor's House was constructed by estate masons and joiners. The building stands on a hillside and comprises a main 1½-storey multi-gabled house with an adjoining single-storey L-plan former office wing and store.

The walls are built of coursed whinstone rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings and quoins. A stugged yellow sandstone ashlar bay window marks one elevation. The pitched roof features overhanging eaves and exposed rafters.

SE Elevation: The main house presents an L-plan elevation with a very deep timber gabled entrance porch positioned in the re-entrant angle. The porch has heavy turned timber uprights to the front and a semi-glazed door with narrow side lights to the upper flanks. To the left return, a timber base supports paired bipartite windows, with a timber gable above featuring plain bargeboards and a braced drop finial. To the left of the entrance, a tripartite window at ground floor level is accompanied by a stone gabled wallhead dormer breaking the eaves. To the right, an advanced gable contains a rectangular bay window at ground floor with four stone transomed and mullioned windows facing forward and single side lights. This bay has bracketed splayed eaves supporting a semi-piended roof. Above it sits a tripartite window to the upper storey, with plain bargeboards, bracing, and a drop finial rising into a spike. The adjoining set-back L-plan former office and store wing features a low wall with a central entrance forming an enclosed yard. The main wall displays paired glazed doors to the left and a large sliding multi-paned door to the right. A gabled end advances to the right with a timber boarded door in the left return.

SW Elevation: A gabled end to the right contains tripartite windows at both ground and upper floor levels. The overhanging roof features plain bargeboards and king-post bracing with drop and spike finial. To the left, a high single-storey wall has a central tripartite window.

NW (Rear) Elevation: An advanced gabled end to the left has a central window at ground floor and upper storey levels. To the right, an irregularly fenestrated advanced gabled end is present. Both gables feature overhanging roofs with plain bargeboards; the left gable has a drop and spike finial. Between these gabled ends sits an advanced two-storey flat-roofed single bay extension that cuts to the eaves of the left gable. The single-storey office wing adjoins to the far left.

NE (Office) Elevation: The main house presents a symmetrical single-storey end with a central 1½-storey gabled end rising into a stack. The adjoining advanced single-storey L-plan office wing at ground floor level (centre and right) has a door and window to the left and a gable to the right with a central bipartite window. The right return displays three regularly placed bays.

Windows throughout are mostly bipartite and tripartite casement windows, each with four horizontal panes. The single-storey bay window features 12-pane timber sash and case windows with 4-pane upper sashes and 8-pane lower sashes. A 4-pane timber sash and case window lights the rear gable. Bipartite and tripartite multi-paned windows with opening top hoppers appear elsewhere, including on the rear elevation.

The pitched slate roof features lead ridging, flashing, and valleys, with some later ventilators added. Overhanging eaves display exposed timber rafters and timber bargeboards (the NE gable's timber work was replaced around 1987). Painted cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout. Very high octagonal ashlar chimney stalks sit on solid ashlar bridge bases, positioned at gableheads behind the overhanging eaves, with octagonal cans to the NE elevation and office wing.

Interior: The original room plan survives with timber skirting boards and window ingoes, along with timber internal doors. Some fire surrounds and the staircase remain in place. The office wing now provides additional accommodation and storage.