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Summary

Description

Early 17th century core, enlarged Robert Hall & Son and dated 1859; James Pearson Alison, alterations 1910; Aitken & Turnbull, addition 1975. 3-storey, 6-bay, symmetrical, rectangular-plan, gabled, Scots Renaissance style villa with advanced pedimented central bays, large canted ground-floor windows and finial-pedimented eaves-breaking dormers. Coursed whinstone rubble with smooth and droved sandstone dressings. Corniced eaves course. Central 2-leaf timber-panelled front door in consoled, broken-pedimented architrave with urn in pediment; open segmental pediments to first-floor windows; squared hoodmoulds to central windows. 2 carved armorial plaques to centre of principal elevation and 2 biblical plaques replacing windows to SW. Blind windows to NE elevation. 2-storey, 5-bay, flat-roofed windowless extension extending to rear on site of former service wing; rendered upper floor on earlier wall, and open concrete stilts over carport below to NW. Escape stair to rear. Timber-clad lift shaft to rear (2007).

Plate glass in timber sash and case windows. 2 Wide stone skews to pedimented gables. Slate roof. Corniced rectangular stacks with plain clay cans. Squared cast-iron rainwater goods with dated hoppers.

INTERIOR: Large open entrance hall with balustraded four-sided gallery; symmetrical room layout to ground floor. Geometric floor tiles to entrance hall. Moulded arched doorways with shell bracket details; moulded architraves; ornate plaster cornicing to ground floor rooms. Slate chimneypiece; panelled timber shutters. Curved stair with cast-iron banisters. Secondary stone stair to upper-floor rooms; 6-panel doors and cast-iron chimneypieces. Plain windowless 1975 Scott Gallery to rear upper floor.

TOILET BLOCK AND BOUNDARY WALL: Small square-plan gate pavilion with later rendered extension to NE linked to curved capped whinstone wall extending to N.

Statement of Special Interest

Hawick Museum is an important and prominent building located in the town's Wilton Park with a good Scots Renaissance detailing. The building has a 17th-century house at its core, with extensive later-19th-century alterations before being converted for use as the town museum in the early 20th century.

It was originally built by the Langlands family in the 17th century as a large U-plan and bought in 1805 by James Anderson. Anderson's daughter and her husband David Pringle - who was a wealthy East India Company merchant, and not connected to the Pringles of knitwear fame - undertook major alterations to the house in 1859 using local Galashiels architects Robert Hall and Sons. These improvements included an additional 3rd storey, remodelling of the main façade, new porch and canted ground-floor windows, and a new domestic range to the NE. The building and grounds were bought by the Town Council in 1889 on Mr Pringle's death for £14,000 and the grounds turned into the municipal Wilton Park. The lodge was tenanted by the Wilton Lodge Academy, a co-educational private school from the 1890s. The Lodge was converted into a museum in 1910 by local Hawick architect James Pearson Alison (1862-1932), in order to expand a small museum collection which was housed in the former Buccleuch Memorial building on North Bridge Street.

When the building was converted to a museum the domestic stair was removed to create a double-height entrance space, and a circular route created by linking main rooms. The museum houses relics and local history objects collected by Hawick Archaeological Society from 1856.

A Buccleuch Arms stone panel by Thomas Beattie from the former Museum building of 1887 on North Bridge Street, demolished in 1971, is built into the museum extension. A stone Burgh Coat of Arms salvaged from the former Corn Exchange and a carved stone of 1885 from Linden House are built into the wall behind the War Memorial.

Double access ramp to main entrance (2005).

The park structures, war memorials and gate lodge are listed separately. List description revised following resurvey (2008).

References

Bibliography

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