History and background
The Laurels is a mid to late 19th century dwelling which had been altered. It appears to have begun as a core building which could be older than the carved date above the front door (1870). The house has a one and a three quarter storey central portion with two single storey wings, including the front door gablet which bears the carved date [1870]. No building appears on the site on the 1854 Ordnance Survey which shows the course of the river much nearer to the position of the house. From this we were able to deduce that part of the 2¾ acre garden was reclaimed land and built up.
The house is constructed of rubble sandstone with a worked even face and dressed surrounds, rybats and quoins and a slated roof. Internally there have been alterations since the addition of the wings, inasmuch as they are formed to the gable slappings, involving imperial half brick walling. As the generally applied decorative plasterwork oversailed these alterations one got the impression that the house underwent a level of aggrandisement, possibly in 1870 per the date on the entrance gablet, which would compare with the plasterwork patterns. The 1912 Ordnance Survey 25” map shows laying out of the grounds which could be contemporary with later house alterations
It is possible the house was built for the Blebo Flax Mills as it lies within the mill area; the Yoolfield Mill lies just below The Laurels and upstream is the Blebo Mill and the barley mill. A lade for the Yoolfield Mill is on the Ceres Burn bank opposite the Laurels. The river loops around the garden and has created high steep banks on the west and north sides, casting the house into shade during the winter. Buildings on adjoining land, which do appear on the 1854 OS map, are said to have originally been part of the mill ownership. These have been demolished and a new house has been built on the footprint of the roadside cottages.
The Ordnance Survey Name Book for Fife and Kinross-shire 1853-1855 Vol 59 states: Blebo Mills is a large collection of buildings consisting of dwelling houses and mills. The mills are for spinning flax and their machinery is driven by water and steam power. The dwelling houses are occupied by those employed at the mills. The proprietor is Mr David Yool. This same name is applied to a farm steading situated on a high part of the land overlooking Mr Yool’s mills. This farm steading is small and irregularly built and occupied by Mr James Anderson, farmer. The proprietor is Alexander Bethune Esq., Blebo.
The house is constructed of rubble sandstone with a worked even face and dressed surrounds, rybats and quoins and a slated roof. Internally there have been alterations since the addition of the wings, inasmuch as they are formed to the gable slappings, involving imperial half brick walling. As the generally applied decorative plasterwork oversailed these alterations one got the impression that the house underwent a level of aggrandisement, possibly in 1870 per the date on the entrance gablet, which would compare with the plasterwork patterns. The 1912 Ordnance Survey 25” map shows laying out of the grounds which could be contemporary with later house alterations
It is possible the house was built for the Blebo Flax Mills as it lies within the mill area; the Yoolfield Mill lies just below The Laurels and upstream is the Blebo Mill and the barley mill. A lade for the Yoolfield Mill is on the Ceres Burn bank opposite the Laurels. The river loops around the garden and has created high steep banks on the west and north sides, casting the house into shade during the winter. Buildings on adjoining land, which do appear on the 1854 OS map, are said to have originally been part of the mill ownership. These have been demolished and a new house has been built on the footprint of the roadside cottages.
The Ordnance Survey Name Book for Fife and Kinross-shire 1853-1855 Vol 59 states: Blebo Mills is a large collection of buildings consisting of dwelling houses and mills. The mills are for spinning flax and their machinery is driven by water and steam power. The dwelling houses are occupied by those employed at the mills. The proprietor is Mr David Yool. This same name is applied to a farm steading situated on a high part of the land overlooking Mr Yool’s mills. This farm steading is small and irregularly built and occupied by Mr James Anderson, farmer. The proprietor is Alexander Bethune Esq., Blebo.
Ordnance survey map extracts are kindly supplied by the National Library of Scotland
1854
1894
1912
Yoolfield Crescent, just below the Yoolfield Mill, is a notable range of approximately twenty three workers’ cottages, some of which have been altered, spoiling the otherwise homogenous building group.
Dura Den is a linear settlement, largely grouped along the roadside; a development associated with the mills and the community built to operate them. On the lower northerly side, away from the shading of the gorge is the Kemback estate and at the top of the road at the south end, at Pitscottie, there is no shading and a more conventionally distributed settlement around an important road junction.
The 1832 Thomson atlas shows indications of older mills than those described above. The upper mill being described as Pitscottie Mill and the lower as Blebomills though the former it is located on the west side of the Ceres burn and the latter is only shown as a single building. The slightly elevated settlement above Blebomills is, unsurprisingly, called Milton. Other interesting features of this map include the prominent note: Bishop Sharp Murdered here and the nearby settlement of Gomorrah!
The 1854/56 6” OS map shows far more detail and though The Laurels is not shown, the adjacent cottages are, as is the mill lade which runs parallel to the river on the opposite bank. This is the earliest map found which shows the full extent of the mills development in Dura Den.
Forty years later, on the 1894 version of the 6” OS map The Laurels is shown, central between the two older mills building groups and this map more clearly shows the two rows of cottages in the adjacent ground. It appears the house and the cottages had a common service road, which is now the driveway into Underwood, the house built on the footprint of the higher set of cottages. In 1980 these were ruinous and were fully demolished to permit the new house to be built. Although clearly modern, the new house was required to adopt similar massing to the original building and it utilises harling, slate and timber in an interesting and attractive design with a clerestory roof.
In the later 1912 OS map the two terraces of workers' cottages appear to retain an association with the house. The lower level row of cottages was also derelict and demolished in the 80s and the architect owner of the new house is constructing a garden studio on the same footprint, using massively built stone walling in part, on the road side of the building.
The 1832 Thomson atlas shows indications of older mills than those described above. The upper mill being described as Pitscottie Mill and the lower as Blebomills though the former it is located on the west side of the Ceres burn and the latter is only shown as a single building. The slightly elevated settlement above Blebomills is, unsurprisingly, called Milton. Other interesting features of this map include the prominent note: Bishop Sharp Murdered here and the nearby settlement of Gomorrah!
The 1854/56 6” OS map shows far more detail and though The Laurels is not shown, the adjacent cottages are, as is the mill lade which runs parallel to the river on the opposite bank. This is the earliest map found which shows the full extent of the mills development in Dura Den.
Forty years later, on the 1894 version of the 6” OS map The Laurels is shown, central between the two older mills building groups and this map more clearly shows the two rows of cottages in the adjacent ground. It appears the house and the cottages had a common service road, which is now the driveway into Underwood, the house built on the footprint of the higher set of cottages. In 1980 these were ruinous and were fully demolished to permit the new house to be built. Although clearly modern, the new house was required to adopt similar massing to the original building and it utilises harling, slate and timber in an interesting and attractive design with a clerestory roof.
In the later 1912 OS map the two terraces of workers' cottages appear to retain an association with the house. The lower level row of cottages was also derelict and demolished in the 80s and the architect owner of the new house is constructing a garden studio on the same footprint, using massively built stone walling in part, on the road side of the building.
Pitscottie from John Thomson's Atlas of Scotland - 1832: National Library of Scotland