Field Visit
Date 15 September 2009
Event ID 959607
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/959607
An engraving by John Slezer shows Hatton House (erroneously titled ‘Argile House’) around 1680, and illustrates the extensive gardens. The engraving shows a high wall around the garden with a retaining wall supporting an upper terrace flanked by matching pavilions in the south-east and south-west corners. Formal gardens on the upper terrace are laid out symmetrically around a central water feature, an elaborate fountain. The subsequent water feature was salvaged in the 1960s and has been relocated in a private garden at Birdsmill, Broxburn (McGowen2008, 10). The lower terrace also has a central pool, here at the junction of four broad walks. Woodland is shown beyond the garden wall to the north, east and west. The formal gardens illustrated by Slezer do not survive. The upper terrace is now a lawn, and the field below is also grassed over. There are informal lawns and mature gardens west of the bungalow. Fields under pasture and patches of woodland extend over the remainder of the study area.
At the south-east and south-west corners of the large terrace in front of the former house are two late 18th-century pavilions. These are described in the statutory list of historic buildings as two-stage, square-plan, ogee-roofed classical garden pavilions. The ground levels are faced with dressed ashlar, and the upper levels are built of rubble, with harl-pointing and ashlar dressings, cornices, raised quoins and eaves bands. The ground floors are reached from east and west in the lower garden, and the entrance to the upper level is on the north side, from the terrace. The east and west face of each pavilion has a large open round arch. That facing the opposite pavilion is dressed ashlar, and its arch has a fluted console keystone and a projecting impost cornice to right and left. The opposite, outer, arches are concealed by tunnel-vaulted chambers that carry the upper stages of staircases linking the terrace with the lower gardens. The lower stages rise across the south faces of the buildings. The pavilions were restored in the 1880s, although photographs in Country Life magazine from 1911 show the west pavilion roofless.
The ground floor of the West Pavillion ( formerly recorded as NT16NW 5.06, Canmore id: 262516) originally probably open like that to the east, has been altered at two different times. Its east arch has been filled with a recessed wall of rusticated ashlar. This has a central door flanked by a pair of windows; all have monolithic lintels that have been dressed to look like angled blocks. The ‘keystone’ of the door is decorated with a more elaborate version of the monogram seen on the summer house. The windows have been blocked up. There is a large circular window above the door, and a moulded string course between the floors. Inside, there is an internal blind window or niche set into the south side of the east wall. Beyond this, the west arch has been reduced by walls at north and south to make a door that opens into the small vaulted chamber under the stair. This measures about 3m by 2m and has a rubble west wall with a central lancet-arched doorway, flanked by matching arched windows. This wall appears to be later than the east blocking wall. On the first floor, there is a single tall central window in the south and east walls, and a blocked modern fireplace built into the west wall; this is the only detail of note here.
The west wall under the staircase is in a very poor state and the area outside is heavily overgrown. The inner lintel of the central door here has fallen out. In the east blocking wall there are signs of possible settlement at the crown of the arch, with open joints in the string course above. The staircase is in a ruinous state and heavily overgrown. The roof slates need attention; a hole in the north side has been patched with a board, and the lead cap or finial is missing.
The East pavilion (formerly NT16NW 5.07 Canmopre id: 262517) is essentially a mirror image of the west pavilion. The ground floor has no blocking wall or niche, and the vaulted under-stair chamber is open at both ends. There is no fireplace on the first floor.
The external stairs to the terrace on the east and south walls are ruinous and overgrown. The outer ring of the arch in the east wall has lost some stone. The slates need repair and the roof timbers are likely to have been affected by water, as the finial is missing.
Archaeological Services Durham University, 15 September 2009. OASIS-id: archaeol3-64466
McGowan, P 2008
