These plans show how the house was used in the days when the Birkmyre family was still living in the house.
Click to see larger copies.

Floor Plan For The House

This is the top two levels of the house. When the house was turned into a school these top rooms were used mainly for the dormitories for the pupils.

The details have been taken from a rough floor plan which was drawn up in 1966.

I can understand the attraction of this room as it has un-interrupted view across the area as the photograph to the left shows.

There was at one time more of these dome sky lights in the house but they have been removed.

You can't fail to notice the lovely wood that is all round the house this is the main stair well.

Stairwell

Middle Landing

One of the baths is still in it original place but the rooms have been changed on this level and the other is now a small kitchen.

A typical dormitory bedroom taken in 1944/45.

1:Joined to the tapestry room by a small corridor I am unsure as to the original use of this room. It contains a large fire place and mirror and I guessing that is was a private sitting room for the family.

2: This room is currently in use as a dining room. It has long been used for this purpose as the photographs show.

3:This room is attached to the dining room by a door. It is beautifully wood paneled right round and has a sink and fire place intact in its original position.
The most striking feature of the room is its stain glass window. Unfortunately at the time of writing this I have no information about it but that does not detract from how wonderful it looks.
This room is to be made into a dining room as the school now needs more space.

The roomas a common room for the school in 1944/45. The stained window is off to the side of the room.

The Ground Floor

The Tapestry room was only an entrance hallway when the house was a family home. It was grandly decorated as this was the first room that visitors were received into.

When the building became a school the tapestries were actually taken away by the family but later returned.

You would have entered the double doors then through an arch way and into the room itself.

The tapestries are actually Flemish and were made in the 18th century. There is no special history linked to them actually they are not even considered to be worth a great deal in value, but as part of the houses heritage they are priceless. They were last cleaned in 1966.

These are only two sections of the tapestries. They are framed by the wood panelling all round the room. It must have been a very beautiful room to enter when they were new and brighter than they are today.

The Tapestry Room

The Basement

I do not have many details about which rooms would have been on this level when the building was a private house.
I know that the Birkmyres had a Flower Room and the building would have had a coal store and I think these might have been on this level.

In the section that was referred to as the Dungeons in 1966 was to housed the furnace. There was also a coal chute into this room from the outside of the building which allowed some more adventurous students a way of entering the building, as they were connected by a corridor to the entrance hall.
Walls have been added and door removed and they are no longer connected in this way.

If the house staff were working away down in the depths of the house they could be contacted by a bell system of the type that was installed in many houses of this kind.

This page last modified on Saturday, January 08, 2005

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