Sites and Monument Record: Vellore House (SMR 252)

Description
Vellore house is set on a hill with the main façade facing north towards the main road. This façade is symmetrical in the medieval castle style with a tall central battlemented two-storey block flanked by recessed single-storey links leading to squat two-storey round towers having conical caps. It might thus be described as a small scale version of a pavilioned Palladian layout in the emergent Gothick style. It was largely created in the 1790s for Major Duncan Drummond of the Scotch Brigade who was with the British army at Fort Vellore in India when it was besieged by Hyder Ali in 1780. The siege lasted for just over two years and on his return home he set about remodelling the farmhouse to create a stylised replica of the fort with its round corner towers. It is said that this included a parade ground (now gone).

The three-bay main block has large hoodmoulded rectangular windows with backset margins containing 12-pane sash and case glazing. A similar window occurs in the ground floor re-entrant to either side. The two windows on the first floor on the west side are blank, as is the northernmost one on the east side. The walls are of random rubble with a dressed plinth course, a string course at the level of the ground floor window sills and backset quoins. These once highlighted a render picked out with lines to depict ashlar masonry, as still occurs above the wall head. The whole block is topped by a crenellated parapet with large squared merlons capped with a plain cornice, set on a dentilled corbel. There are diminutive polished ashlar bartizans at each of the four corners, with moulded corbels and curved dentilled eaves. In the centre of the east and west walls the merlon is expanded to form a large chimney stack with hoodmoulded panelled sides carrying four smaller merlons each supporting a chimney can. These features hide the shallow piended slated roof. A crenallated single-storey porch projecting from the central bay is a mid-19th century addition, its ornate doorpiece having been formerly flush with the main wall. The doorpiece has an ogee arch containing a traceried fanlight under a pedimented cornice, framed on either side by three-cluster column shafts. It interrupts the dentilled cornice. The side walls of the porch each contain a single pointed arched window. These walls are of ashlar and have the same plinth course and sill band as the main block. The slated roof is in the form of a shallow pyramid and is now topped by a crown finial of lead.

The single storey links contain three symmetrically disposed pointed-arched windows, the centre one being larger than the others and possessing a hoodmould. It also has margined glazing, whereas the other two are blank. A scalloped crenalleted wallhead of dressed masonry hides the low piended slated roof. The terminal towers are of random rubble with dressed margins, including a rounded plinth course, plain string or sill course and moulded corbel to the battlements. The ground floors are dominated by large glazed crosslets loops facing north and west or east. Directly above these are small pointed arched windows.

Over the following centuries the house was extended to the south, beginning in the early nineteenth century with a three-storey jamb or wing with a hipped roof aligned north/south. This was attached to the eastern part of the main block and was originally relatively plain with backset margins and a southern gable having a plain skew. Despite the difference in the number of floors, the extension was almost the same height as the main block and one of the merlons was given a pointed top to accommodate the ridge. A narrow porch-like return of the same height covered the central doorway of that block, providing a new entrance.

The house had been acquired in 1843 by John Urquhart senior, whose son John G Urquhart married Jessie Kincaid in 1847. JG Urquhart inherited the estate and soon became an important figure in the local community. He was often seen at agricultural shows winning prizes for his farm stock. He was a justice of the peace and a sponsor of clubs and church groups. At his own expense he constructed a pond near the road in the 1860s and founded the Vellore Curling Club, and shortly afterwards the Vellore Bowling Club for which he converted the front lawn into a green. In 1869 he was made an ensign of the 1st Linlithgowshire Rifle Volunteers and subsequently entertained its members at the house, bringing back the military air. During his ownership it was referred to as “Vellore Castle.” By the time of his death in June 1890 he had the rank of captain.

In 1901 William and Helen Brown moved into Vellore House. The south wing was further extended by the Falkirk architect James Strang in 1905/6 for the Browns when a two-storey accommodation block was placed across its southern end, extending a little beyond it to the east. It has snecked rubble walls in a pinkish sandstone and a piended slated roof, aligned W/E. The upper floor window surrounds stand slightly proud of the wallhead and are capped with corniced round-headed pediments. Those on the east side contain the inscriptions “WB” and “1906”. As further improvements followed this design was incorporated into the existing dormers of the early 19th century wing. 1905 also saw the construction of a recreation or billiard room behind the western tower, linked to it by a short corridor. A tall square chimney stack near its north-west corner bears the inscription “19 WB & HB 05” on its splayed moulded foot. Two large windows to the south have the round-headed pediments, again inscribed; that on the west bearing two monograms – “WB HB”, the other the date “1905”. Again the roof is piended and it stands as a semi-separate structure. In 1912 this was balanced by another pavilion or smoking room in a similar position behind the eastern tower (but slightly protruding to the east). It too has two large windows, this time with plain round-headed pediments. The roof has gabled hips. The tall chimney on the north wall protrudes from it and is heavily moulded. The link to the tower is by an angled crenelated wall, bearing a blank shield. A similar wallhead is found in the re-entrant angle between the 1906 extension and the south wing, where a small rectangular extension was inserted to improve lighting to the kitchen. This was achieved by the use of double windows. Finally, a substantial lean-to structure was added to the west side of the south wing. It had a stone lower storey below a conservatory, which extended westward along the south side of the original block. The conservatory storey has now been lost and the lower floor greatly modified. To the south of the house the existing outbuildings which followed the W/E boundary were demolished and replaced by substantial N/S stone structures; the western one having a heavily moulded door surround and the date 1909.

The Browns continued the tradition of playing a lead role in the community, allowing the grounds to be used on special occasions by various groups. Horticultural shows were promoted. Henrietta Brown married William Watson, a Glasgow banker. He died in 1922 and she died in 1944. In the 1940s Richard Brown followed in his parents’ footsteps and became particularly interested in observing details of the weather, reporting his records to the Falkirk Herald.

In 2018 the glass leanto porch, that had taken the place of the conservatory at the west end of the original block, was replaced with a large and more modern structure having a pyramid-shaped roof. A small flat-roofed modern extension was also placed in the awkward angle between the south wing, the east link and the smoking room.
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