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Summary

Description

Circa 1830-40. 2-storey 3-bay farmhouse with full-height rear wing. Rendered with contrasting ashlar dressings. West (principal) elevation has central recessed doorway with consoled pediment, timber door with glazed upper panels and a fanlight above. South elevation has 3 bays with advanced gable to left, with a central door behind a late 20th century conservatory. There is a lower range, adjoined and recessed from the north gable.

Timber sash and case windows with predominantly 12-pane glazing pattern. Squat coped end stacks with clay cans, and pitched roof with graded slates. Overhanging eaves with exposed purlins.

The interior was seen in 2014. The internal 19th century plan form remains predominantly intact, with some degree of alteration, such as the removal of fireplaces and their surrounds. There is some decorative plaster cornicing to principal rooms, panelled shutters and doors, moulded architraves and a curved timber stair with plain timber banister and metal railings. The ground floor drawing room has a recessed niche. There is a larder with sandstone shelving.

Rendered and coursed rubble boundary wall to southeast with flat coping stones and squat obelisk gatepiers.

Statement of Special Interest

Wamphraygate Farmhouse is a good surviving example of a farmhouse which is typical of the late proliferation of Improvement period farms in Dumfries and Galloway in the first half of the 19th century. Agriculture was an important part of this area's economy during this period and Wamphraygate Farmhouse is a good survival of a style and form which were typical to the farmhouses in this area and which are usually characterised by a wide, 2-storey, 3-bay, pitched roof arrangement. It has some restrained classical decorative features and the principal elevation of the farmhouse remains largely unaltered which marks it out in terms of architectural interest.

This farmhouse is an example of the transitional phase of farm building development where some designs for farms were still incorporating the farmhouse within the steading range as was common in earlier times, but there was a move away from this to detached farmhouses, as at Wamphraygate. This was a conscious decision to place the farmer and consequently the farmhouse on a higher footing than simply as part of a range of other agricultural buildings and is evidence of the increased social and scientific and technical emphasis placed on the farming profession with the farmer having a level of detachment from the work of the farm itself. The principal elevation of Wamphraygate Farmhouse is crucially turned away from the steading and has its own setting within the wider landscape. At Wampraygate, the restrained classical style is typical of the period and the entrance is given careful simple detailing with its classical doorpiece.

Wamphraygate Farmhouse appears in its current plan form in the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1857 (published in 1861). The farm also appears on John Thomson's Atlas of Scotland 1832 as Newhall, which is the previous name of the farm before it was named Wamphraygate. Furthermore, in the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland's Transactions: With an Abstract of the Proceedings at General Meetings and the Premiums Offered by the Society, Volume 4 and published in 1816, discusses Newhall or Wamphray-Gate in the context of crop diseases (specifically mildew in corn), in a small field of the farm at Newhall (see pages 136-139). This source provides evidence that there was a building on the site by at least 1795.

The 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map shows the farmhouse as well as the detached U-plan steading range to the east. From map and stylistic evidence, it is likely that the farmhouse was built between 1830-40 and earlier fabric may have been incorporated to the rear (north) elevation. The previous listed building record noted that it was probably formed from an earlier 18th century house on the site and this may still be a possibility. The entrance to the east elevation is dated '1854', showing that this section was probably altered around that date.

In Scotland in the mid to late 18th century and into the 19th century, agriculture was transformed as subsistence farming gave way to the creation of larger farms. Drainage, use of lime as a fertiliser and improved understanding of husbandry all contributed to this and land was enclosed into fields and very small landholdings were merged into larger farms.

Much guidance was written on how to design and plan a farm in this period, amongst the most well-known of these is J C Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture first published in 1846. The encyclopaedia shows a design of a type of detached farmhouse similar to that of Wamphraygate Farmhouse (see page 474). The Statistical Account of Scotland for Wamphray Parish of 1791-99 notes that within the last 10 years agriculture has been carried on to a much greater extent than previously and that there was a shift towards cattle farming rather than arable farming. It is also noted that the principal heritor and patron of the parish land at Wamphray was the Earl of Hopetoun, with a small section to the north of the parish owned by the Duke of Buccleuch, however most of the Wamphray estate was purchased by Dr John Rogerson (physician to the Russian royal family) in 1810 who furthered improvements, for example, to buildings and fencing. The Second Statistical Account of Scotland for Wamphray Parish of October 1835 notes that improvements had continued and there was an increase of cultivation and farming in the area, resulting in a great contrast of welfare since the first Statistical Account.

Category changed from B to C, 22 February 1988.

Statutory address and listed building record revised in 2015. Previously listed as 'Wamphraygate Farmhouse'.

References

Bibliography

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