KEYS TO KNOW
A centuries old East Lothian house has been taken from sorry state to glorious home, finds Kirsty Mcluckie
Northfield House in Prestonpans is a beautiful 17th century mansion that has been meticulously restored by its current owner, Finlay Lockie.
Originally from Edinburgh, he was based in London two decades ago but hankering to return to Scotland and find a house that was a suitable renovation project.
He says: “Knowing this, a friend, when he saw Northfield on the market, sent me a note to say ‘your house is for sale and you must come and buy it’, but I was tied up at the time and didn’t do anything about it.
“A couple of years later, I was in East Lothian on a cold winter’s day and we just had a notion to go and have a look at it.
“We crept into the garden to see whether this old wreck of a place had been restored or burnt down in the meantime.”
What they found was a completely derelict building with an overgrown garden, but Finlay describes it as a “magical sleeping beauty of a house”.
He says: “I decided to buy it, which started a very long adventure.”
The house was very primitive with one rudimentary bathroom – the only source of hot water, no heating and no modern wiring or plumbing.
It wasn’t even wind and watertight. He says: “Buckets had been placed under all the dormer windows upstairs and the floors were so rotten you could put your heel through them.”
Over the next two years, he spent every holiday and many weekends on the house, eventually moving there in 2002.
During this time he met and married Kirsten, who is originally from Canada. The couple now have two children, Jamie, nine, and Alice, seven.
Finlay says: “Kirsten loves the house as much as I do. She must have thought me eccentric to be doing this, but has been happy to take on the project alongside me.”
The house was originally built for the Hamiltons of Preston but was bought in 1607 by an Edinburgh merchant, Joseph Majoribanks, supplier of hats to James VI.
It was Majoribanks who extended and embellished the interior with ornate ceilings of painted fruit, flowers and birds which are still there. The kitchen bears his 1611 flagstone floor and the original doors appear in many rooms.
Subsequent owners have added their mark – the drawing room has elegant Georgian proportions and the staircase, castiron Greek revival balustrades – but the beauty, according to Finlay, is that none of them changed it hugely.
He says: “The door into the hall is from around 1590, and I think of the joiner, four and a half centuries ago, crafting this thing of beauty. It is something to be proud of that it is still there.”
Keeping old features was an absolute rule during the upgrading, where possible. The sash and case windows are thought to date from around 1700, making them among the earliest examples in Britain.
The wood has been restored, the wonky glass retained or, where broken, replaced with salvaged panes of a similar age.
Chimney stacks have been rebuilt, harling repaired and gutters and valleys replaced.
The grounds were a challenge, as Finlay had no previous experience of gardening. He says: “I was really in despair about the magnitude of what had to be done.
“Fortunately my green fingered mother showed me that I could work on a tiny area for an afternoon and make progress, and from there I just moved on to the next area without really worrying about the whole.”
The garden, like the house restoration, is akin to eating an elephant, he says. “You just start with the tail and keep chewing”.
After two decades, work is complete. The once-derelict historic home is in beautiful order and unlikely to need much more than maintenance from the next owner.
One area that offers potential, according to Finlay, is the ground floor. “It is the most castle-like part of the house with stone barrel vaulted rooms, the old kitchen and a garden room. Someone could, if they wished, convert it into a spectacular living space.”
Having poured so much into Northfield, it will be a wrench to leave but Finlay and Kirsten have fallen in love with their next project, a 34-roomed Palladian mansion, in need of a complete overhaul.
Finlay says: “Only four of those rooms have both a floor and a ceiling. I’m beside myself with excitement about starting on it. Shouldn’t take longer than about ten years.” Seven bedrooms, a drawing room, dining room, family kitchen and studio. Original tempura painted ceilings.