Braidwood House, Braidwood

Braidwood House is a small country mansion built in the early 19th century in neo-gothic style, extended to the east in 1929–30 to designs by Lorimer and Matthew. Both phases are rectangular on plan, with the later addition having a central light-well. The house is constructed of coursed and stugged ashlar sandstone with polished ashlar dressings and features gothic detailing throughout, including a large ornate porch. It stands within extensive gardens and parkland on the outskirts of Braidwood village in South Lanarkshire. During the later 20th century the building was used as a care home and subsequently as offices. The building has been unoccupied for several years (2022).

Main House

The main house is two storeys over basement, with a four-bay principal (south) elevation. To the left is a single-storey canted bay window with segmental-headed openings, stone mullions and transoms. The entrance bay, slightly left of centre, projects and is gabled with an ornate corbelled chimney above a round-headed window. The porch has a pitched roof with central finial, pointed-arched openings and stone side panels carved with trefoils. The main opening is framed by a pair of large octagonal piers on chamfered bases with elaborate finials to the domed caps. Two further bays are symmetrically arranged.

The west elevation of the main house is three bays with a single-storey canted bay window to the left. This bay projects slightly and is gabled with a corbelled chimney stack matching that of the main elevation. A further chimney stack sits between the other two bays. The rear (north) elevation is plainer with multiple bays and an exposed basement. A two-bay central gabled block projects at the centre with a chimney. Crossing the basement level at the central bays is a modern wooden addition providing level access to the ground floor (excluded from the listing). At the southeast end of the original house, stone steps descend to the basement level, which features irregular openings and a coal store added in 1930. The side (east) elevation of the main house is abutted by the later wing.

Window openings largely have raised and moulded surrounds, some with label moulds, and round-headed openings on the ground floor. The rear has plain square-headed openings with ashlar cills and some blind windows. Windows are mainly timber sash and case with 12-pane glazing. The roofs are piended and slated with an M-profile over the east half and a flat section to the centre containing a pyramidal rooflight. The roof is partially concealed behind a parapet with a moulded cornice to the eaves. Numerous clustered chimneystacks top the wallhead gables or break the parapet at the eaves. Each cluster generally has two or three offset diamond stacks with a gablet motif to the base and largely hexagonal clay pots.

East Wing (1929–30)

Adjoining the east elevation is the two-storey east wing added 1929–30, which has a piended slate roof and a central chimneystack reused from the original ancillary building previously attached to the house. The main (south) elevation has stugged stonework and detailing matching the main house. It is three bays with larger ground floor windows and a projecting gabled bay to the right with partially stepped skews. Between the windows of this bay is a decoratively carved sundial dated AD 1930 with scrolls and floral motifs. The side (east) elevation is rendered with stop-and-start moulded window surrounds in polished ashlar. A later two-storey flat-roofed block adjoins to the right (excluded from the listing). The rear (north) elevation has a gabled bay to the left with a chimney matching those of the main house. The elevation is entirely fronted by a lower two-storey block of the same date, plainly detailed with rendered walls, a piended slate roof and regular window openings that are bipartite on the ground floor. Connected to the centre of its rear (north) elevation is a three-bay single-storey building with a pyramidal roof. Both these buildings are rendered with masonry cills.

Later additions to the main house and east wing include a two-storey access tower to the southeast elevation and a single-storey wooden pavilion attached to the central rear bay, giving level access over the basement. These additions are excluded from the listing.

Interior

The interior has not been inspected (2022). Historic images and sales particulars (from 1996, 2014 and 2018) indicate that some architectural detailing may still exist, including a decorative tracery-style cast iron balustrade to the main stair, moulded timber door surrounds with oversized cornices, and a decorative glazed timber screen to the entrance hall. There is evidence of a music room in the east wing known to have had ornate plasterwork cornices, an organ inbuilt into the wall, and a painted mural over a large decorative fireplace with a carved surround.

South Lodge and Gates

The former approach to the house from the west (known as South Lodge) is a gated entrance with three large ornate octagonal piers in gothic style built from polished ashlar sandstone with fluted caps and pinnacles (two pinnacles missing, 2022). Between these piers are metal gates (thought to be later steel replacements) with decorative fleur-de-lis style railing heads and quatrefoils (excluded from the listing). A short length of boundary wall to each side is built of coursed ashlar sandstone with saddlebacked coping with raised ridge, terminating at two smaller octagonal piers.

The South Lodge, southwest of the main house and set behind a small boundary wall, dates to the early 20th century and has been extensively altered. In the grounds to the east of the house is an early 20th-century garage, and at the east entrance is a set of simple square gate piers. To the northeast is a single arched bridge likely dating to the earlier 19th century. These buildings are excluded from the listing.

Historical Development

Braidwood House is thought to have been built in the early 19th century for Nathaniel Stevenson and is first shown on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1857–58, published 1860). It remained a private house until 1971 when it became a care home.

During the early 19th century, the Clyde Valley underwent large-scale urbanisation with the advancement of industries in the area and saw the building of several new country houses. Many of the newly wealthy moved out of the large urban areas, away from overcrowding and disease outbreaks in the large cities.

In 1812 the 'Farm and Lands of Braidwood', at around 210 Scots acres, were for sale at auction. A newspaper advertisement mentions a 'good situation for building upon the Braidwood burn', suggesting there was not already a house associated with the site (Caledonian Mercury, 1812). By 1819 Nathaniel Stevenson, a lawyer from Glasgow, was being referred to as Nathaniel Stevenson of Braidwood in a newspaper article (Caledonian Mercury, 1819).

On the William Forrest map of the County of Lanarkshire (imprinted 1816), two buildings are shown near where Braidwood House now sits, though it is unclear if these are the current house or earlier buildings, as the road layout has been altered since. Based on map evidence, the house was likely built between 1816 and 1838, when the first child of Nathaniel and Margaret Stevenson is recorded as being born at Braidwood House (Caledonian Mercury, 1838).

Braidwood House is described in the New Statistical Account (published 1845, written 1839). Under the title 'Modern Buildings of the Parish', it notes that "…the only edifices in the parish which have any pretence of architectural beauty are three in number".

The footprint of the older part of the house has changed little from the first Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1857–58, published 1860). The footprint is shown as a rectangular plan house with the original U-plan ancillary wing adjoining to the east elevation. The only change to the footprint of the main house has been the insertion of ground floor level access to the rear, inserted prior to 1963 (Ordnance Survey Map, 1963). An old image of Braidwood House (pre-1930) shows that the principal elevation of the main house has remained relatively unchanged since this time.

The house was bought by (David) John Colville, 1st Baron Clydesmuir, around 1917. Changes to the property were made in 1929–30 to designs by the Edinburgh architectural practice of Lorimer and Matthew. As part of these works, the earlier single-storey U-plan ancillary wing, which included a garage, stables, harness room and coachman's rooms, was replaced by a substantial new wing. This new wing contained the principal bedroom, boudoir, day nursery and an ornate music room, with service rooms and servants' quarters. The front elevation was designed to match the style and materials of the main house, and two bays of the original wing that adjoined the house were incorporated into this new wing. Stones and architectural features were reused from the earlier ancillary building, such as the original chimney stack, whilst other features were carefully emulated to ensure the building matched the main house. As part of these works, some changes were made to the rear elevation of the original house, including the opening of at least one of four blind windows, only one of which remains blind (2022).

Lodge houses at the north and south (west) gates do not appear on a map until the Ordnance Survey National Grid map published in 1958 (revised pre-1930 to 1957). It is likely, given the style of the South Lodge, that these were added around the same time as the east wing. This mapping also shows the main house has relatively the same footprint as before. The rear of the house now has a small addition spanning the basement access. There are also some changes to ancillary outbuildings, including the addition of a garage in the woodland to the east of the house.

In 1971 the building was sold by the Colville family and became a care home eventually run by Capability Scotland. It was then bought by the Airbourne Initiative and briefly used as a facility to prevent young prisoners from reoffending, after which it became an office for the Forestry Commission. These changes in use resulted in the alteration of the internal fabric for institutional use, but the extent of alteration remains unclear. Changes also included the addition of a later 20th-century two-storey access tower to the southeast elevation, which has an external metal encased stair or ramp covered in corrugated metal (all excluded from the listing). There was a large fire at the house in 1980 which badly damaged the roof and caused internal damage. The level of damage is unclear, although it took around 18 months for the residents to move back in (Wishaw Press, 1981).