Mansefield, Dunmore Road, Balfron

Mansefield is a large villa built in 1859-60 by the architect Alexander Thomson, with subsequent additions and a late 20th-century garage. Originally a manse for the United Presbyterian church, it was later altered to a T-plan shape with the addition of the garage. The house is designed with 'Greek' detailing, mullioned windows, and shallow gables with deep eaves.

The exterior is constructed from squared and snecked sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, and painted margins around the windows. The main, south-facing elevation features a gabled bay on the left with a projecting mullioned tripartite window on the ground floor. Above this is a weatherboarded, mullioned seven-light oriel window with a decorative gablehead and flanking timber struts. A single-storey porch with a crenellated parapet carved with anthemion designs is set into the re-entrant angle. A narrow window is positioned next to the projecting bay, and an entrance with a two-leaf boarded timber door is on the right return. The right bay has a set-back mullioned tripartite window on the first floor, with a small square window to the right of the ground floor. A single-storey service wing, slightly recessed, extends to the outer right with a mullioned bipartite window.

The west elevation is largely occupied by the gabled bay on the left, featuring a bipartite window with a pilaster mullion on the first floor and a ground floor window to the left. A flat-roofed garage addition is attached to the outer left.

The east elevation has a projecting gable end of the service wing on the ground floor, along with a mullioned bipartite window. The gable end of the main block is set back at the first floor with a mullioned tripartite window.

The north elevation includes a ground floor window to the left, one above it to the centre, and a flat-roofed garage addition projecting to the right, with a single-storey service wing adjoining to the left, containing an entrance and a window.

Most windows are timber sash and case windows with 2 and 9 panes. The roofs are grey slate, except for the garage addition. A corniced stack is centrally positioned on the main block, topped with round cans.

The interior retains much of Thomson's original decorative scheme, including his trademark 'Greek' door panelling with a vertically divided lower section and a horizontal upper panel. There’s decorative cast-iron balustrade with a timber rail, plasterwork cornices with 'Greek' dentillation and paterae.