A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME
Nichola Hunter visits 17thcentury mansion Northfield House which has been restored to its former glory through 18 years’ hard graft
The dilapidated Northfield House in East Lothian has been lovingly restored to its former glory
For Finlay Lockie and his family, the renovation of Northfield House hasn’t been a step back in time but a journey through it. Finlay was working in London as a lawyer when a friend sent him a message about a house in Prestonpans he might like. ‘They knew I was on the lookout for a project back home in Edinburgh or nearby, but I was a bit busy at the time and didn’t really pay the message much heed.
‘Two years later I was visiting a friend in Edinburgh and took a jaunt to East Lothian and I wondered what had happened to that house in Prestonpans. I thought by now it might have been demolished, split into apartments or worse still, its lovely garden filled with bungalows.’
Finlay soon found the house. ‘It was a beautiful February day with crystalline blue skies,’ he says. ‘The sun was shining straight onto the front of the house and it just looked like a sleeping beauty. There was a strip of ground clear to the front door in an otherwise totally overgrown garden, and that was it. It was magical because of the day but also because the building was complete but just at that fragile point where a building like this can’t really hold out much longer.’
Although he still had misgivings, when Finlay returned to London he contacted the selling agent. ‘It had been on the market for three years and was in such a state that even with a modest asking price the cost of doing it up was likely to be huge.’ Its forlorn state and some of the less sympathetic alterations also made him wonder whether it could ever feel like a real home.
Nevertheless, in January 2000 he became the new owner. ‘It had been inhabited until 1999 by W Schomberg Scott, an architect, who bought it in 1951. Whilst I don’t agree with all the things he did, he deserves huge credit for saving the place.’
For the first year or so, whilst still living in London, Finlay worked on making the house windproof and watertight but in February 2002 he moved in permanently. ‘At that time there was no heating of any kind, one hot water cylinder and 48 windows, many of which were broken and all requiring careful renovation,’ he laughs.
‘The roof was leaking, I had buckets under several locations and the general demeanour of the place was of one very unloved wreck. The worst day I had was in October 2001. We’d had a lovely summer and I’d decided to do a blitz on windows on the west side of the house.
‘I took eight windows out completely, stripped them, repaired the broken glass, reputtied them, sanded them down and started repainting and then the weather changed. I’d been invited to lunch in Glasgow with my then-girlfriend and I left the windows stacked outside drying in the sun. We returned to a blizzard with snow piling up in the rooms at the front of the house. I burst into tears. I really thought I’d bitten off more than I could chew.’
But the weather improved, and Finlay kept going. ‘The first room I did was the kitchen and it was a huge improvement once the fireplace was working. The chimney was blocked because the stack had been rebuilt in the 1960s and all the masonry had been chucked down it.
‘My brother, Hamish provided additional muscle power when needed and we spent a week working inside the
chimney breaking our way down and then rebuilding the guts of it.
‘Once that was done suddenly this room had hot water and I had somewhere warm to retreat to; it was a huge boost. Then I set about building the kitchen cupboards, which I made from reclaimed flooring and church pew backs.
‘As this room only became a kitchen in the 1820s, I wanted to mimic an 1820s kitchen – smart but definitely ‘below stairs’. It’s rather a narrow room and I wanted to make it work so that I could have kitchen suppers. So, I went for a narrow book case and a long, narrow, trestle table which seats ten comfortably.
The next room on the list was the dining room. ‘The panelling dates back to around 1690 and it all had to come out to be restored. The floor had to come up as well. The floors were re-milled from joists I got from a demolition site but they’re the right width and thickness and, most importantly, colour.
‘There are four periods of history in here. The 1611 painted ceiling, 1690s panelling, 1780s windows and an 1830s fireplace, so it’s quite a mix. It’s certainly unique and I think one of the loveliest dining rooms I’ve ever had the pleasure to dine in.’
Whilst Finlay had been working his way through the house, he also found time to get married to Kirsten and have two children, who all seem to find living in and restoring a 17th-century mansion, absolutely normal. ‘I knew what I was getting into and the kids do think this is normal,’ says Kirsten laughing.
Having someone to share the journey
The panelling dates back to 1690 and it all had to come out to be restored
I hope the house will give the impression it’s always been loved
has made all the difference and in 2010 the couple even managed to get married in the house and accommodate guests.
‘It spurred us on. We had to put a shower in for one thing. And we did two of the bedrooms upstairs which were quite complicated. The floors had to come up and all the panelling, which was falling to bits, was rebuilt.’ Today, the couple have methodically worked their way through every room, every beam, roof truss and piece of glass to create a home that genuinely does work for a modern family but teems with history and character.
‘That a house should survive this long with so much of its hidden treasures still intact and still be a perfectly practical family house is wonderful. It’s a big house, but entirely manageable and it’s so interesting. And Prestonpans, about which foolish opinions have been expressed by some, is one of the most delightful communities I’ve lived in. People really look out for you.
‘Looking back at this 18-year endeavour, the most important thing to me was that I could look the house in the eye and say that I shall leave it in better heart than I found it. I hope the house will give the impression it’s always been loved rather than having been derelict and brought back from the brink.’
Northfield House may have taken 400 years to find Finlay Lockie but it’s incredibly fortunate it did. Now, having spent 18 years saving this wonderful piece of heritage, the family is about to embark on another – equally daunting and similarly huge – renovation project nearby. It’s been a remarkable and often exhausting journey but Finlay clearly remains undaunted.