THE BSPC PROPERTY GUIDE / FEATURE PROPERTY
A virtually unchanged Georgian villa records a piece of Hawick’s heritage This B-listed very-little-altered Georgian villa is a magnificent five bedroomed family home with rarely found original period features, but more than that, it’s also an important house in Hawick’s architectural history. Built circa 1830 by John Wilson, brother of Hawick’s first Provost George Wilson and son of William Wilson of Ladylaw Mills, Ladylaw House was the first villa of its kind in the Wilton area. In the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries other mill owners also built homes here, attracted by the area’s seclusion and panoramic views over the town. The property was extended in 1902 to create a north wing and in 1910, Ladylaw was purchased by James Pearson Alison, a prominent local architect who, having survived a gas explosion at the house, commissioned a fireplace to be built in the reception hall that incorporates a full-height stone chimney breast with a Latin inscription, which translated means: ‘By the mercy of God, praise we are not destroyed – in the month of February 1910 – While I breathe I hope’. In the 1950s the house was split into two, separating the original rectangular-plan house from the north wing extension. Ladylaw is an architectural wonder, a single -storey symmetrical blond sandstone house with deep overhanging eaves and full-height 16-pane glazed sash and case windows overlooking mature garden grounds extending to around 0.5 acre, which includes a private woodland, herb garden and orchard. The property also has a double garage and driveway, accessed off Rosalee Brae.
Internally, the layout comprises entrance vestibule (large enough to be usable as a room and currently a seating area) with original mosaic tiled floor and double doors into the reception hall/dining room, off which is a large drawing room, four bedrooms (one presently a music room) and an inner hall leading to a bathroom, study, large dining kitchen and rear hall that houses a toilet and utility/laundry room where a door gives access to a cobbled courtyard, stone outbuildings (including an outside toilet) and side garden. And there’s a quirky addition – a staircase in the kitchen leads to just one room with skylight windows, now a fifth bedroom but originally it would have been the maid’s room. Given its size (14ft x 15ft) and location, just off the kitchen, this would make an ideal family/TV room or children’s playroom. The interior is even more remarkable given a list of original Georgian features that includes working window shutters, ornate plasterwork and paneling, even more ornate intricately carved pelmets, leaded display cabinet doors, four-panel doors, and marble fireplaces. The wealth of detail is outstanding, particularly in the reception hall/dining room, an amazing space where an archway, supported on either side by fluted timber Doric columns, frames the fireplace wall with its stone chimneybreast and carved inscription.
But then, there are also things to marvel at elsewhere: the drawing room has decorative wall paneling, an ornately carved marble fireplace mantel, inset open fire, over-mantel mirror and recessed display cabinet with Art Deco leadlight doors, while all four bedrooms on the ground floor have marble or stone fireplaces. The dining kitchen has a green gas-fired Aga cooker that also powers the central heating system. Ladylaw House is a period property lover’s dream and although the interior requires a degree of modernisation and redecorating, hopefully this will be done sympathetically and enable this historic property to retain its period charm and features for future generations.
Ladylaw House Rosalee Brae, Hawick Fixed Price £275,000 Details on page 24
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