Anstruther Easter, Backdykes, Melville Manse

Anstruther Easter Manse.

The building of the manse in Anstruther Easter was undertaken at Whitsunday in the year 1590, and by the following March the minister, Mr. James Melville, was resident therein (1). It cost rather more than 3500 merks. On plan it consists of an oblong main block, lying approximately east and west and measuring externally 21 feet by 62 feet 8 inches, the 17 feet at the western end being a 17th-century extension. On the south is a wing 12 ¾ feet broad, projecting 10 ½ feet from the main wall, and containing a turnpike-stair in the lower part and chambers in the upper. The turnpike does not go farther than the first floor, and the upper chambers are entered from a turret-stair corbelled out within the eastern re-entrant angle. The main block is three-storeyed and contains on the ground floor, within the original portion, three vaulted chambers and a passage and, within the extension, an unvaulted chamber. On the first floor there are two rooms above the vaults, and this arrangement is repeated on the upper floor, at which level there is a contemporary fireplace in the gable. The turret-stair is gutted.

The elevations are plain. The walls are of rubble, harled. The voids are exposed and have dressed margins rounded at the arris. Some of the windows have been enlarged. The upperpart of the south wing oversails on a continuous corbel-course. The gable of the wing bears, high up, a panel inscribed, THE WATCH TOWR (sic).

HISTORICAL NOTE. At the date of building, Anstruther Easter was still part of the parish of Kilrenny (see No. 27), at which place was the church, though the minister resided in the former town. Melville himself provided the money for the manse, the parish contributing only about 3000 ‘sleds’ of stones and fourteen or fifteen chalders of lime (1). The house was thus his own property and was sold by his grandson to Sir William Anstruther. But in 1713, Sir John Anstruther made an exchange with the Town Council, and the house again became the manse (2).

RCAHMS 1933, visited 23 June 1927.

(1) Autobiography and Diary of James Melville (Wodrow Society), p. 6. (2) East Neuk of Fife, p.363.

Photographic survey of buildings in Anstruther Easter, Fife, by the Ministry of Work/Scottish National Buildings Record in July 1963.

A laser scan survey of Melville Manse, Anstruther, was carried out by RCAHMS in 2010.