152 Weensland Road, Heronhill Lodge Hawick, Scotland

Text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

A good example of a mid-19th-century 'ink-bottle' lodge with bold composition, fine detailing and tall ornamental stacks, situated in a prominent position on the Weensland Road (A698) leading north-east out of Hawick towards Jedburgh, designed by the Glasgow-based architect John Thomas Rochead (1814-78). Rochead was born in Edinburgh and trained in the office of David Bryce, setting up his own practice in Glasgow in 1841. He became a very successful architect, and worked in a variety of idioms including Scots Baronial, Gothic, Greek Revival and High Renaissance. He undertook a number of commissions for villas for wealthy industrialists and businessmen from the early 1850s onwards, including several in Hawick in the 1860s. Heronhill House and its lodge were designed by Rochead and built in 1864-5 for George Wilson, first provost of Hawick and owner of the nearby Weensland Mill. The main house was later the town residence of Robert Noble of Borthwickbrae. During and after the Second World War it was used as a private girls' school, and subsequently by the knitwear companies of Anne Howard, Lyle & Scott and John Spencer. The estate was bought by the Council after the war for redevelopment; a number of houses were built on the land, although the house itself was not demolished until 2005. The lodge is the only remaining element of this once significant property. Heavy swept concave quadrant arcs above corner windows similar to those used for this lodge were employed again by Rochead in his design for the nearby Mansfield House Hotel, built as Thornwood in 1870. The 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map (1897) shows the lodge to have been L-plan at that time, the porch comprising the foot of the 'L'. According to the building's current owner (2008), however, it was originally a single-room, square-plan building, and the large recess to the side of the principal octagonal room is believe to have housed a bed. There were certainly works carried out during the 1930s and 1950s to extend the lodge, first to include a pantry at the rear, and then to provide a kitchen at the west side. The building is now entered via a door to the south elevation of the latter extension, whilst the original porch is used as a cupboard. Despite this, the unusual 2-door porch still retains its original external doors.