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Summary

Description

Circa 1855, 2-storey, square-plan Italianate villa comprehensively remodelled by George Henderson with additions of 1884-5; 3-storey, 5 wide bay, multi-gabled additions to S and E in neo-Elizabethan style on gently sloping site, large timber conservatory.

MID 19TH CENTURY VILLA (SW): 2-storey, square-plan villa with single storey L-plan kitchen and store range to rear enclosed by coped retaining wall into raised ground. Overhanging bracketed eaves; single and bipartite segmental arched windows. Rubble walls; stugged sandstone quoins and margins with smooth stop-chamfered arises. Plate glass in timber sash and case windows, leaded bipartite window to stair; platform piended graduated slate roof; corniced squared wallhead and ridge stacks; cast-iron rainwater goods.

1884 ADDITIONS: 3-storey, 5-bay, asymmetrical F-plan frontage with stepped advanced gabled bays to right and slender 4-stage hexagonal crenellated stair tower to far right re-entrant angle. Canted oriel window above square-plan crenulated entrance porch to left re-entrant angle of smaller advanced gabled bay with arched doorway and reticulated tracery window. Various neo-Tudor openings; large 8-light slightly advanced square-plan crenellated window to entrance hall with cusped reticulated tracery; projecting canted mullioned and transomed round headed windows to outer gabled bays; Elizabethan hoodmoulded and multiple transomed and mullioned windows to rectangular canted bays. Squared and cusp headed windows; squared, ogee and composite mouldings with label stops. Crested plaque engraved 'JS'. Base course; stepped string course at eaves; crenellated and gabled parapet wall heads. Side-hung bronze casement windows; timber boarded doors with decorative cast-iron strap hinges; corniced and shouldered tall octagonal stone chimney stacks; cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative square curved hoppers.

INTERIOR: fine decorative scheme in Gothic style dating to 1884 and incorporating earlier villa interiors; panelled timber manorial entrance hall with timber four-centred arched arcade at half-landing, carved wooden chimneypiece with arched dark red alabaster fire surround; pictorial stained glass and stone shouldered arched doorway to curved stone tower stair. Ornate plasterwork with pillastered frieze and French alabaster chimneypiece to drawing room; neo-Rococo plasterwork and pink veined alabaster chimney piece to dining room. Timber panelled library. Coloured leaded glazing to main stair, separate service stair.

CONSERVATORY: Mackenzie and Moncur, 1884, asymmetrical hexagonal-ended-plan stained timber glazed conservatory built into rising ground. Rock-faced rubble canted plinth with moulded string course at floor level, round arched door and oval window to store below. Vertical glazing pattern; plain and swan-neck scrolled pediments; wooden ballustraded cornice. Clear polycarbonate roof to hexagonal section.

BOUNDARY WALLS: coursed rubble to N; stepped coursed rubble with saddle backed copes and pointed segmental-arched gateway to SW linking to main gateway to S (see separate listing). Decorative cast-iron street lamp and acorn headed clothes poles to garden.

Statement of Special Interest

A Group with the Gate lodge, Former Coach house, Rose Cottage and Entrance Gateway (see separate listing), dating predominantly from 1896.

Woodlands House is a fine example of an imposing predominantly later 19th century mansion in unusual neo-Elizabethan style by George Henderson (1846-1905) of the prominent Edinburgh firm of Hay and Henderson. The house demonstrates fine Tudor-revival strapwork detailing and stonework to the exterior whilst also retaining much of the highly decorative gothic scheme to the interior, such as the striking manorial hall and decorative plasterwork to the principal rooms.

The 1884 remodelling was commissioned by James Sanderson of Hugh Sanderson and Son who had bought Comely Bank Woollen Mill in 1880. The exuberant design for the house greatly increased the size and grandeur of the previously modest villa, demonstrating Sanderson's prominent position in business in Galashiels. Hay and Henderson were a firm known to be able to produce both high quality villas and public buildings in wildly differing architectural styles, several of which are in Galashiels such as The Public Library, Old Parish and St Paul's Church and the former St Peter's Hall (see separate listings).

Woodlands House is said to have been the first house in Galashiels to have been provided with electric lighting with power supplied by an underground cable from Comely Bank Mill.

It underwent internal reconstruction in 1979 when it was altered to form a hotel, although many interesting interior features survived. The hotel was then remodelled to form a private home circa 2005.

The associated former glass houses are now in the garden ground of Hazelbank House to the N, under separate ownership and currently in a state of disrepair (2006).

References

Bibliography

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