Description

Circa 1870. Single storey and attic former library and librarian's house, cottage orné. Predominantly squared and snecked tooled sandstone. Overhanging eaves, chamfered openings, columned entrance.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: central projecting half-hipped gable with generously recessed single storey 2-bay wing to left. Slightly recessed single storey 1-bay wing to right (former library). Single doric column to porch at outer right with entrance door to library.

N ELEVATION: near-central 2-bay gable with single storey wing to right. Wing to left obscured by later 20th century rubble sandstone extension.

Some original leaded lattice glazing to N elevation, otherwise uPVC. Graded grey slates. Timber doors to former library and right wing of N elevation. Ridge stack between former library and house, partial stack to W.

INTERIOR: former library, recess for shelves to E wall, fireplace now flanked by shelves W wall, access to house originally through W wall, but now through later rear extension. Coombed attic ceilings.

ANCILLARY STRUCTURES AND BOUNDARY WALLS: low boundary wall to S. Washhouse and lavatory to NW, single storey tooled sandstone, piended roof, graded grey slates. 2 doors to S with chamfered droved openings. Washhouse to left (now used as a store), lavatory to right.

Statement of Interest

Nos 1-8 Hope Cottages, 18-20 Carriden Brae, Carriden Cottage, The Library House and Old Schoolhouse and The Old School House were all built as a model village for the Carriden Estate workers by Admiral Sir James Hope of Carriden (1808-81). The picturesque cottages are well designed and carefully executed and are resolutely English cottage orné in style with their lattice windows and hipped roofs. They were designed with large gardens and at one time had stone pig stys in the garden. Each cottage had its own well with a handpump in the scullery. The cottages all had a blind lattice window ('to keep the devil away' as local folklore had it), of which No 19 is the only one to retain this feature. The floor plan of No 19 may be taken as close to what the other cottages were originally like. No 19's scullery originally housed a boiler for laundry and a mangle. Some of the cottages had a floored attic.

Admiral and Lady Hope were committed teetotallers and it is likely that they provided the Library House and large gardens to occupy their workers and distract them from public houses.

The Library House was modernised in the 1970s. The learned nature of the building is announced by the use of the doric column in the entrance porch.

Part of a B-group with The Old Schoolhouse and The Old School House, 1-8 Hope Cottages, 18, 19 & 20 Carriden Brae and Carriden Cottage.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17816076

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)