Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

ROSETTA HOUSELB15209

Status: Designated

Documents

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Summary

Category
B
Group Category Details
100000020 - see notes
Date Added
23/02/1971
Local Authority
Scottish Borders
Planning Authority
Scottish Borders
Parish
Peebles
NGR
NT 24394 41403
Coordinates
324394, 641403

Description

1807 for Thomas Young. 2-storey with attic and basement, 3-bay rectangular-plan country mansion with slightly advanced central entrance bay; central bowed bay to rear and later single storey bowed and stilted outshoot. Whinstone rubble with dressed sandstone ashlar tabbed margins and long and short quoins. String course at ground floor; mutuled eaves course.

E (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: essentially 2-storey, 3-bay on basement with slightly projecting central bay with pediment surmounting. 6 stone steps leading to pilastered door surround supporting entablature, 2-leaf timber entrance door (with 5-light glazed fanlight) leading to semi-glazed panelled inner door; window to outer bays. To 1st floor, 3 regularly placed bays; triangular pediment rising above central bay forming attic with elliptical window in tympanum. To basement, window to outer bays, central bay concealed by entrance steps but boarded door within right return. Inset ashlar ogee curved wing walls form passage to front of basement; wrought-iron railings with fleur-de-lis and pinecone heads surmount wall and follow line of wall and flank stairs of ground floor entrance, stone obelisk terminating piers to outer of railings with wrought-iron urns surmounting.

N ELEVATION: 2 regularly placed bays to each floor; two diagonally placed 2-pane Carron lights to attic. Inset retaining wall forming passage at basement level accessed by flight of ashlar steps to right of elevation.

W (REAR) ELEVATION: essentially 3-bay with regular fenestration to basement, ground and 1st floor on outer bays; tripartite windows to central bay of upper floors (glazed middle light, outer lights blind) contained within a projecting bow rising into crenellated wallhead; smaller windows to returns of basement bow. Later single storey, semicircular ended outshoot to right re-entrant angle of central bow at ground floor level, resting on retaining garden wall; windows to end and right return; crenellated wallhead. Door directly below offshoot at basement level.

S ELEVATION: 2 regularly placed bays to each floor. Inset retaining wall forming passage at basement level accessed by flight of ashlar steps to left of elevation.

12-pane timber sash and case windows; 8-pane windows to later stilted offshoot. 2-pane cast-iron Carron lights to N elevation of attic with further roof light partially concealed by castellated bow. Piended grey slate roof to outer bays, pitched roof to rear of central bay behind castellated bow; lead ridging to all with slates forming flashings. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods. Paired ashlar roofline stacks flanking central bay with plain neck copes and 6 plain cans each.

INTERIOR: central lobby with timber panelled door leading to dining room (left) and drawing room (right). Dining room has service room to rear; drawing room runs full length of house. Oval smoking room to rear of house, contained within bow. Marble fireplaces to principal rooms, cast-iron fireback in drawing room earlier than house. Central geometric stone stair case with plain cast-iron balustrade leading to 1st floor (bedrooms) and basement (kitchen and service rooms).

Statement of Special Interest

Part of a B-Group with Rosetta Stables, walled garden and lodge. This small mansion house stands to the north of Peebles. Set within wooded grounds, now a caravan park, the house has its own stables and walled garden (listed separately). In the 18th century, the site to the west of the road was known as Acrefield, and was owned by John Borrowman. Land to the south was owned by Francis Gilbert (Provost of Peebles) and called Acrefield Govan, as it once belonged to the Govans of Cardrona. John Robertson, a silversmith from Newcastle, bought both parcels of land in 1740 and renamed them "Acrefield". In 1807, he sold them to Thomas Young of Chapelhouse, East Lothian for ?3500. The new house, Rosetta, was erected for Young, a military surgeon and his new bride Violet Burns, the daughter of James Burns of Barns. Young had been on the Egyptian expedition led by Sir Ralph Abercromby who, after the capture of Alexandria in 1801, had secured the Rosetta Stone for Britain. A plaster copy of the stone is built into the entrance lobby. In 1823, Young improved the entrance to the house by acquiring part of the adjacent Elliot's Park land from Miss Ann Elliot in exchange for land to the west of the Rosetta estate. He died in 1836 and Trustees of the estate bought further land to the west of the Eddleston Water. The estate was sold in 1867 for ?9500 to Coutts Trotter of Melville Street, Edinburgh. The estate was then sold, in 1873, to the M'Gildowny family of Woodfold Park, Lancs. The house suffered fire damage in the later 20th century, although it has now been refurbished. The estate of Rosetta is in use as a caravan park with the house as its centrepiece.

References

Bibliography

M Armstrong, COUNTY OF PEEBLES (1775) showing Acrefield. J Thompson, PEEBLESSHIIRE (1821) showing Rosetta. 1st Edition ORDNANCE SURVEY MAP (circa 1857) showing house, stables and garden grounds. J W Buchan, HISTORY OF PEEBLESSHIRE (1925) Vol II, pp316-318. RCAHMS, INVENTORY OF ANCIENT MONUMENTS, Inv. 581: plan, fig. 283; elevation, fig.284; details, plate 78. Sheila Scott, THOMAS YOUNG OF ROSETTA (1980) 8 page pamphlet on Rosetta, in NMRS. C A Strang, BORDERS AND BERWICK (1994) p236.

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

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Printed: 29/03/2024 09:29