The manor coal built
Pit owner’s vast Victorian home up for grabs for price of a city semi
COLLECTING things was all the rage i n Victorian times – butterflies, stamps, shells and even human bones. Coal pit owner James Ferguson collected rooms. And he simply had to have the latest fads. A Jacobean-style library with beams on the ceiling? Yes, please. Stained glass windows depicting touching religious scenes? I’ll have some of that.
It is for this reason that Auchenheath House, about four miles from Lanark, grew from a simple cottage in 1842 to the impressive stone mansion we see today, rich in period detail with an Italianate tower at its heart.
Ferguson was clearly a wealthy man. The specialist ‘gas coal’ from his mines was much sought-after in the 1860s, from European cities such as Hamburg and Venice.
This allowed him to buy unwanted items from Hamilton Palace, including two grand fireplaces, and put them in Auchenheath.
The house has had a number of interesting owners over the years.
Dr Jack Kelly, a retired heart surgeon from Glasgow, established a Christian retreat here in the 1960s. Locals recall how he and his wife Eileen would open up their house at Christmas and treat children to a party in the dining room.
Perhaps the legend carved on the front door is down to him: ‘Enter O Lord, this house with me, until I enter Thine with Thee.’
The long hallway runs for most of the depth of the building, offering the most attractive apartments on the west-facing side.
Here you will find the drawing room, which has lovely stained glass windows bearing the phrase in French, ‘Courage without fear’.
The morning room is bright and welcoming but the library, with its network of dark beams stretching across the ceiling, has to be the stand-out space.
The library also has a walk-in safe, where Ferguson used to count and dole out weekly wages to his miners, who would wait in line right down the hall.
The irregular way he assembled his house becomes evident when you approach the downstairs bathroom. You have to duck beneath a spiral staircase, which leads up to the first floor, to avoid hitting your head. At the rear of the ground floor lies a chapel, with a working bell outside which once called the faithful to prayer.
Nearby sits the servants’ quarters and kitchen, which have suffered a bit through water ingress through the ceilings.
The current owners are dedicated to the preservation of the property and so are waiting to get Welsh slate for repairs, rather than use anything inferior on the roof. Elsewhere, you will find ten bedrooms, a lodge house, barn and assorted outbuildings which offer opportunities for further development.
Planning permission exists for a number of new detached properties within Auchenheath’s 12 acres of grounds.
The extensive gardens run down to the River Nethan, where otters can be seen.
All of this is on offer for a starting price that you might expect to pay for a semi-detached in a good area of Edinburgh.
Talking of cities, Glasgow lies only 30 minutes’ drive from Auchenheath via the M74.
Even the capital can be reached quickly, by driving to Carluke and then taking the train.
Whoever buys this special place will need a lot of energy and deep pockets. But wherever you go on the property, you will hear the echoes of history on your shoulder.