Walled Garden, Northfield House, St Abbs

Walled Garden, Northfield House, St Abbs

Northfield House is a substantial Victorian country house built between 1888 and 1892, with later additions and alterations. The main building is an asymmetrical 2-storey, 6-bay structure with gables, dominated by a 3-storey square-plan entrance tower offset to the left of centre and an engaged 2-storey octagonal-plan tower offset to the right. A single storey passage connects these to a taller single storey T-plan block to the outer left, which was formerly a dance hall. A former turbine house stands to the north.

The principal block is constructed of coursed and bull-faced pink and cream sandstone with ashlar dressings. A stepped base course supports overhanging timber bracketed eaves with decorative bargeboards and tapering timber finials. The entrance tower features a moulded string course dividing the ground and first floors, a rope-moulded eaves course, and decorative brattishing to the cornice. Ashlar quoins are used throughout, with long and short surrounds to chamfered openings, sandstone mullions, and chamfered cills. The single storey passage and taller block to the outer left are rendered in whitewashed harl with ashlar dressings.

The southwest entrance elevation is the principal facade. The entrance tower, offset to the left of centre, displays a deep-set part-glazed two-leaf timber panelled door at ground level with a plate glass fanlight set within a segmental-arched roll-moulded surround. Single windows occupy both bays at the first and second floors of the tower. Gabled bays recessed to the left and right of the tower contain bipartite windows at ground level and single windows at first floor. The engaged octagonal tower, offset to the right of centre, has single windows at ground and first floor levels; a panel dated 1892 appears beneath the eaves and is surmounted by a spire and wind-vane. To the right projects a gabled bay with a bipartite ground-floor window and a single first-floor window. A further gabled dormerhead breaks the eaves above a single window in the bay recessed to the outer right. The single storey range to the outer left comprises a glazed passage adjoining the principal block, with a taller block to the left featuring a bipartite window in a projecting gabled bay.

The northwest side elevation shows a 3-bay principal block with squat single windows at first floor offset to the right of centre and flanking single windows at ground level. Gabled dormerheads break the eaves above single windows. A projecting single storey range adjoins the outer right.

The northeast rear elevation is composed of a symmetrical 3-bay range to the right with a glazed door centred at ground level, topped by a 3-pane fanlight and a gabled dormerhead with a single window breaking the eaves. Flanking gabled bays have canted windows at ground level with single windows aligned above. To the left is a recessed 3-bay range featuring a modern conservatory and a gabled projection, with gabled dormerheads to single windows breaking the eaves in all three bays. A recessed single storey range adjoins the right side, containing a 2-bay passage with pointed-arched openings to the left and a large part-glazed boarded timber opening with a 3-pane fanlight centred in the taller block to the outer right.

Windows to the front are plate glass timber sash and case, while those at the rear are predominantly 15-pane timber sash and case. The roof is of grey slate, with a platformed pyramidal roof to the entrance tower featuring rope-moulded flashing and an octagonal spire to the engaged tower. Decorative brattishing adorns the single storey passage. Ridge stacks are corniced sandstone with circular cans. Iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

The interior was not seen during the 1999 survey.

The former turbine house to the north is a single storey, 2-bay rectangular-plan structure built of coursed and bull-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings. The west elevation contains single openings in both bays; the south elevation is a gable end with a single centred window. The building is now roofless but retains a corniced stack. Its interior was not seen in 1999.

The walled garden is an irregular-plan enclosure to the southwest of the house, covering approximately 1,500 square metres. Coped walls enclose the site, with heavily-pointed rubble forming the outer elevations and red brick linings within. Remains of a greenhouse survive to the north; no evidence of formal layout remained as of 1999.

The entrance gate to the southwest is a gabled structure featuring a pointed-arched vehicular opening to the left topped by a carved mask, possibly depicting St Ebba, at the gablehead, with two-leaf iron gates below. A square-headed pedestrian opening with a single iron gate stands to the right. Hooped iron railings partially enclose the site to the northeast, with coped rubble walls completing the boundary.