Wauchope Burial House

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The Wauchope Grave House, NiddrieEdinburgh

Conservation Plan, Part 1

February 2010


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Contents

1 The Background 1

2 Introductive Summary 2

3 TheEvolutionoftheSitesSignicance 3

3.1 First phase: William Wauchopes burial, 15873.2 Second Phase: the chapels destruction ( 1587 - 1688)3.3 Third Phase: erection of the grave house (1689 - 1943)

3.4 Fourth Phase: loss of context (1944 - 2010)

4 The Grave house today 13 4.1 The form

4.2 The enclosure wall4.3 The close and court

5 StatementofCulturalSignicance 18

6 Issues 19

5.1 Use5.2 Physical Condition5.3 Previous Alterations

5.4 (Potential)AreasofConict

7 Conservation Policies 21 6.1 General Statement of Intent

6.2 New Uses6.3 New Design Elements6.4 Fabric Repair and Maintenance6.5 Management6.6 Documenting Change6.7 Working within Resources

7 Implementation and Review of the Plan 23

Notes 24Bibliography 25

5Appendix 1: Listing and description of carved stones in yard wall 25Appendix 2: Proposal for reuse as standby generator house, 1982 26Appendix 3: Proposed new planting to improve sites context 27


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After the death in 1943 of Jean Wauchope, the Niddrie estate, ownedbytheWauchopefamilyforatleastvehundredyears,cameupfor

sale and was bought by Edinburgh Corporation in order to build housesfor those in the city most desperate in need of adequate, affordableaccommodation. The grave-house (and possibly some graves outsidethe house), together with another graveyard opened in 1685, some100m or so to the south-west and the home-park boundary lines wereall that was retained in the clearing of the site for the streets and housesby which it now is covered. The conservation of the grave-house isthe Councils responsibility. In December 2009, it commissioned thisreport.

The Site:A small, B-listed, one-storied, stone, vaulted grave-house of1735, covering an inscribed grave slab (and probably tomb), of1587, on the site of a 1502 chapel (destroyed 1688), with carved

stones (probably) from that chapel built into the low stone wallthat encloses the grave-houses main, decorative, west front. Anarrow close on the south, a tiny yard on the west, and its ownwalls on the north and east form the site boundaries.

The Location:About three miles from Edinburghs centre, down a narrow,setted close at the west side of Niddrie House Drive (NT 469281), between no.s 34 and 36, with the close on its south,two backgreens on the west, and one on its south and east.Niddrie house was demolished in the 1960s, and no trace of

it remains. The burn near whose banks the grave-house oncestood has been culverted and built over, and the Niddrie estateslandscaped gardens once stretching round it are now replacedby council housing.

The Clients:Edinburgh City Council

Others involvedHistoric Scotland has an interest, as does the local authority(both in their legislative roles). Residents of Craigmillar housingscheme (adjoining residents in particular), also have a stronginterest as inheritors of their neighbourhoods past, possessorsof its present and de facto guardians of its future.

Preparation of Part I of this Conservation Plan (Statement ofCulturalSignicanceetc):

D.Bell, February 2010

PreparationofPartII(ConditionReport,ManagementPlanetc):

Bob Heath, Architect and Stone Consultant, February 2010

Purpose of Statement:The purpose of this Conservation Statement is to set basicparameters for the future repair and reuse of the Wauchopegrave-house, compatible with the conservation of its value, andto act as a basis for a more detailed proposals and ConservationManagement Plan (Part II), by

i] highlighting the particular qualities of the grave-house,whose value to our culture has warranted its specialprotection,

ii] summarising its present state, the physical condition ofthe fabric in which its qualities are embodied, and othercurrent pressures it may face, and

iii] extractingallissuesandpossibleareasofconict.

Factors are then specied that must be taken into serious

consideration in the fabrics future management.

1 The Background

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The grave, its housing and the enclosure wall, because of their age and quality

of design, are,nationally, ofquietbut signicantcultural value, evidentially(historically) and aesthetically (architecturally). When the context is taken

into account, this value, because of its extreme rarity in the locality, risesastoundingly, and is joined by equally high social and emotive local value. (Seep. 18.)

Theprimarysignicanceis,however,asamansgrave,andrespectforits peace should outweigh all other considerations.

The main issue is the lack of quality of the context allocated to the grave house

in Niddries latest redevelopment of 1991. Given that the housing layout is notlikely to change yet again in the near future, it is recommended that as much aspossible should be done to turn the present situation to advantage by planting.

(See p. 27)The other issues are minor and can be simply resolved. Repointing of

the roof and walls, and other small repairs in the roof area need to be carriedout and, internally, the interventions remaining from its reuse as housing for a

standby generator in 1982 must be removed. (See Part II for details.)

Theonepotentialareaforconictisbetweendrawingattentiontothesiteand

itssignicanceinordertoconsolidateitsvaluelocally(andfurtheraeld),and

bothagravesessentiallyreectivenature,andtheincreasedriskofvandalism.Proposals are made to resolve this by contextual design (see pp.20, 27)

Therefore, the main elements of this Conservation Plan are

1a that the grave house should be put back in good repair and,once that is done, should have regular preventativemaintenance, annual comprehensive inspection (particularly of

theroofsurface),followedbyimmediaterepair,toensurethe

survival of the fabric as long into the future as possible, and1b that all repairs should be carried out in the least interventive way

possible, with minimal loss of original material, including that of

the enclosure wall;

2a that nouse should be made of the grave house other than itsfunction of protecting the tomb of William Wauchope. Respectfor his remains, and for his descendants honouring of themshould be paramount

2b that, at the same time, steps should be taken to make the historyof the grave and its housing better known to Niddrie residents

and others, byi allowing access to the tomb, in numbers appropriate to

its size and under tight supervision, once a year, andii placing an informative panel at the gateway to its

entrancecloseinordertoconsolidateitssignicance

and value to the local area,

2c thatnewmemorialtabletsof(proven)descendantsoftheNiddrieWauchope family should continue to be placed in the remainingniches, if so desired;

3a that nonew interventions to the buildings interior, exterior or

the enclosure wall should be made, other than those solely forthe fabrics health,

3b that all existing interventions, other than, internally, the marble

memorialtabletandtheconcreteoorpads,shouldberemoved

and the fabric made good;

4a that improvement of the immediate surroundings should bemade and maintained by annual inspection and repair (trimming,

feedingetcshouldplantingbeconcerned); 4b that a record of all repairs and interventions should be kept,

4c that Niddrie Community members should be involved insupervising both the proposed day of access and the daily

supervision of the sites health

5 that a named person should be made responsible for protectingthe value contained in the fabric, now and in the future, orderingproper maintenance and repair and contact with involved

members of the local community, thus ensuring that the gravehouse will continue to play its part in the Niddrie environment, in

abenecialandsustainableway.

2 Summary

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3 EvolutionoftheSitesSignicance

The little grave-house - today embedded in the backgreens ofCraigmillar, a twentieth-century council housing-scheme - is almost allthat remains of not just a family that held power in the area from atleast the fourteenth to the twentieth century, but also of a long-settledlandscape, the communities that lived and worked in it and their ownsmall settlements in and around the estate.

This area, at Edinburghs edge, is one of great beauty, largelyduetothesurvivaloffourofthevelargeestatesinthearea-Craigmillar

to Niddries west, Woolmet to the south, Duddingston to the north,andBruntseldtothenorth-east,allofwhichhad,forcenturies,close

connections to Niddrie and the Wauchope family. Niddrie alone of thevehasbeenalmosttotallyobliterated;notbythebadlyneededhousing

now built on most of the land, but by the eradication of everything -natural and man-built - that made it one of the most admired andattractive areas in Edinburgh. Every established route, every building,plant, copse and court, however well it was designed or had evolved to

tthelandandviewswasscouredfromthesite,ifnotinthehousingserection, in its redesign of 1993. As a result, thousands of people weremoved into and now live in a place with no past or individuality, muchlike a better built, more comfortable version of the emergency housingcampstherstresidentshadleft.

3.1 First Phase: William Wauchopes burial

ExactlywhentheWauchopesrsttookpossessionofthelandsofNiddry

is unknown.1 A charter of Robert III (1390-1406) names Gilbert Wauchopas the holder but the family may have had some of the property much

earlier.2Having survived through three hundred years or so of civil wars,

English invasions (that of 1544 having burnt out the great castle on theneighbouring Craigmillar estate)3, and innumerable changes in power,when families won and lost land at dizzying speed, the sixteenth-centuryWauchopes of Niddrie Marischal got caught at last in the chaos thatfollowed Mary Is turbulent reign.

By then, the family had a castle or tower (date unknown), largeenough to accommodate 100 strangers and, in 1502, had founded achapel some few hundred yards away, dedicated to the Virgin Mary andin honorem sancte crucis,4whilethefthsonofthecurrentWauchope,hadsufcientfundstoacquirethepropertyofCakemuir,aboutfourteen

miles south-east of Edinburgh, and build himself a substantial tower.5

The Chapel

Though primarily for family use, the chapel would, no doubt, also haveservedthosewhoworkedontheestatetosomedegree;ifnotforhearing

daily mass at least for marriage, christening and burial (the nearestkirks being at Duddingston, Liberton and Newton, all two or three milesdistant). A burial ground was indeed also established by it.6

In appearance, the chapel is said to have been similar to itscontemporary at nearby Craigmillar.7 When founded, it came under the

rule of Holyrood.8 .After the Reformation (1560s), Niddry was includedin Liberton parish.

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1The chapel at Craigmillar Castle, built at roughly the same timeas that at Niddrie, and similar in appearance to it


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William and Robert Wauchope

When, in 1587, Robert Wauchope buried his father William, either in thechapel itself or in its graveyard, the family was already in considerabletrouble. Little is known of William, but both Robert and his son Archibaldin June of that year were included in the charge againis personisdenuncest rebellis, for their support of the deposed Queen.9 (MaryI, executed four months before by the English, is said to have been

particularly fond of the area, staying often at Craigmillar).10

On the losing side politically (and most probably religiously),11the Wauchopes had other problems too. In a violent age, Archibald,Roberts son and heir, appears to have been notably more vicious thanmost. In 1588, he, with the Laird of Bannochies brother, three servantsof the Laird of Craigmillar, and Thomas Kame, smith in Niddrie, wasaccused of the slaughter of four men, one of whom was an Edmonston,the family who owned the Woolmet estate that bordered Niddrie on thesouth.12 The next year, Andrew tried to attack the Laird of Edmonstonhimself, but was caught lying in wait for him at Bridgend (near Peffermill).

Put in Edinburghs tolbooth, Wauchope escaped out a window duringhis trial the next day. The following year, he killed again, this time merelyonbeingreprovedforstrikinganofcerofarms.13

Father and son were also deeply involved with Francis Stewart,Protestant Earl of Bothwell and the kings cousin, who, in temporaryalliance with the Roman Catholic Earl of Huntly, led an unsuccessfulinsurrection against the twenty-three-year-old James VI in 1589.14Imprisoned then escaped, between 1592 and 1594 Bothwell madevarious attempts to see - or seize - his cousin, all equally violent and justas unsuccessful, and after one of these Robert was taken and wardedin Draphane Castle but released soon after.15

A few years later, in 1593, he received respite for his

art and part in the slaughter of umquhile [deceased] JohnEdmiston, brother germane to David Edmiston of Woolmet,and mutilation of George Davidson in Charterhouse, and for all

other crimes and offenses, as weil slaughter and mutilation asother whatsoever, treason excepted.16

Archibald, who had escaped after the Bothwell debacle, brokehis neck in 1597, trying to escape out a window yet again, this time fromEdmonston who, with a large band of followers, had cornered him ina house in Sclaters Close in Edinburgh. Robert, with his son and heirdead, his lands forfeit, his castle burned down by a mob out of revengefor Archibalds many cruelties and wrongs, died c.1600.

3.2 Second Phase: the chapels destruction

In 1603, Francis Wauchope, Archibalds eldest lawful son, was

restorit and rehabilitat ... to his haill landis, rowmes,

possessiouns, coilles, coilhouchis and others, pertaining to his

said umquhile father ...17

By then, the estate had been sold on, but Francis resolved this dilemma

by marrying the new owners heiress, and signing a caution for 200,000merks. He then left the country and lived very privately as a soldier inHolland until 1632, when he died on his way home.18 Meantime, his wife had been living meanly in the wester houseon the estate,19 what possibly formed the core of the new house Francisis said to have begun, that his son John completed in the 1630s.

New Niddrie Marischal house

A family manuscript notes that John Wauchope, by his frugal way ofliving, payd the 200,000 merks of cautionry, either by selling of land

or by the effects of the rest of the estate, but the house he completedshowed little of frugality..20

Its grandiose interior celebrates the favour in which JohnWauchope was held by the highly unpopular Charles I, who, during his1633 visit to Edinburgh, not only knighted him but also attended thechristening of his second son. Wauchope was also close friends with

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John Maitland, the 2nd Earl and future 1st Duke of Lauderdale, advisorto both parliaments and, under Charles II, virtual ruler of Scotland,renowned above all for his corruptly repressive dealings..21 (Maitlandhad bought the adjoining estate of Bruntstane, north-east of Niddrie,in 1632. The family manuscript states Wauchope lived with my LordLauderdale and was his bedfellow,22 but that might not then have hadthe connotations it has today.)

A kirk elder and commissioner of the 1648 General Assembly(the year moderate presbyterians made a last attempt to reconcile thenow captive kings rule with the countrys religious belief and that of

the English), it is said that, in the most prudent manner, after Charlesexecution,Wauchopeemployedallhisinterestandinuenceforthenew

kings English restoration, that eventually took place in 1660.23 Given thefamilys strong and well known royalist - and Roman Catholic - leanings,Johns survival through the era of the Covenant and the Cromwelloccupation with, apparently, fortune not just intact but increased isremarkable.24

Coal works

A good part of the wealth needed to pay off family debts and build sucha house most likely came from the coal seams that spread under Niddrieand the adjoining estates. Though mined for some hundred years andmore, until the 1600s output had been small due to problems of extractionbut these were now being solved.25 Withmoreprottobemade,morelabourwasneededforthe

highly dangerous, unpleasant work that few, even the poorest, werewilling to undertake. This too was solved by an Act of 1606 that decreedno person should fee, hire or conduce salters, colliers or coal bearerswithout a written authority from the master whom they had last served.A collier who left his pit without the owners permission was consideredto be stealing themselves from their masters and held as thieves andpunished in their bodies.26

In effect, all working in the mines and their children were, fromthen on, slaves. They became a race apart. Known as brown yins orblack folk, they could not attend the kirk. nor could they be buried inconsecrated ground, but instead their graves lay outside kirkyard walls.

They would even be excluded from the Habeus Corpus Act of 1701.27 Atthe same time as the new house, providing the very best of contemporaryliving conditions, went up, a pit village, providing the very worst, alsogrew immediately outside the estate wall.

The chapels destruction

John Wauchope died in 1682, as did his friend Maitland, and three yearslater so did Charles II. With the accession of Charles brother James VII,the country once again faced a king determined on changing the religiousbeliefs and practices fought for so bitterly - and brutally - throughout the

century.Despite the great mass of the populations violently strong

antipathy to what were known as popish practices, James began toappoint Catholics to positions of power and, at Holyrood, turned thenave of the Abbey (since the Reformation, Canongate parish kirk), intoa Catholic chapel royal, opened a Jesuit school offering free education,and established a catholic printing press.28

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2The Dining room, Niddrie house, in 1950


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Royal support - and favour - had begun to encourage a few ofthe nobility to come out as Catholic, but for the small number of Catholicfamilies that remained in Scotland, this had to be balanced against thehatred it would stir up against them locally. It appears that now theWauchopes - both of Johns elder sons, his brother, and his brotherssons - were amongst those who did begin to worship according toRoman rites slightly more openly.29 (Whyte writes in 1792 that they wereCatholics owing to an accidental circumstance, but does not enlarge on

what that circumstance was. Most likely, the family - perhaps exceptingJohn - had never changed its belief, but merely outwardly conformed toProtestant practice.)

Since, from the Reformation, Libberton Kirk had become the legalcentre for communal worship in Niddrie (John Wauchope had erecteda gallery for his familys worship there in 1640),30 burials were the oneuse the chapel retained. In 1685, the year of James VIIs accession, a

new graveyard was opened at the edge of the home park. 31 By movingthis to a distance, there would be no need for any but the family to enter,or be around, the chapel itself. Wauchopes could then worship as theypleased in relative privacy, their practice known (for nothing could behidden from the numerous servants), but not obtrusive. Events make itsafe to assume the chapel itself was then furnished for Roman Catholicworship.

Even such discretion failed to avert the fury of the mob. A year

after the new graveyard opened, there was a riot in Edinburgh over masssaid in the house of the Chancellor, and, in December the year afterthat, when news reached the capital that William of Orange, husband ofJames elder - and Protestant - daughter Mary, had landed in Englandwith a force to overthrow the king, the Edinburgh mob sacked the chapelroyal at Holyrood and drove out the Jesuits. It then set off to do the sameat Traquair, another known Catholic seat and, on its way, burned out theWauchope chapel.

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3The new graveyard of 1685, in 2010


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3.3 Third Phase: the building of the grave house

WithJamesVIIsightto Franceon the23rdofDecember1688,he

was assumed by the English parliament to have abdicated, and in April1689 the Scottish parliament more or less agreed, though with certainreservations. Mary II took the throne with her husband William that year,but the matter was not settled, for a considerable support for James, orrather for the lawful monarch, remained in the country - like him or not.

TwoWauchopesfollowedJamesabroad;JohnsnephewsJohn

and Francis, both of whom eventually became Major Generals, onein French, one in Spanish service.33 Johns son and heir, Andrew [1]stayed. Married to Gilmour of Craigmillars daughter in 1656, she (poorwoman), produced nineteen children in twenty-seven years, of which the

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4The Niddrie neighbourhood in 1766 (Lauries map).

The red square is the site of Niddrie house

1 Craigmillar Catle2 Duddingston House3 Brunstane house4 Edmonston house

grandsonoftheeighteenth,Andrew[2],nallyinheritedonhisfathers,

grandfathers (and mothers) deaths in 1711 (but only after some legaldifculties,neatlyside-stepped,dueto hisreligion,for thefamilystill

held to Roman Catholic beliefs).When, in 1726, Andrew [2] died, aged twenty, in a duel abroad,34

hisfteen-year-oldcousinAndrew[3]theninheritedtheestate.

Andrew, like John the century before, appears to have steadied the family

duringandafterdifculttimes.HesurvivedtheattemptsofJamesVIIsson and grandson to return to power (in 1715 and 1745 respectively),though, with all the familys royalist ties and Catholic sympathies, thepresence of Charles Stuart in Edinburgh, and with his army only a mileor so away at Duddingston must have been a challenge.35


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The aftermath also gave him problems. His Seton cousinsin France, with their lands attainted, made frequent demands on hispurse and sympathy.36 On the death of John Gilmour, his neighbour atCraigmillar, the young heir become his ward, and his education was amatter of constant debate with the widowed mother.37

The collieries, however, continued to thrive and provide a goodincome.38Anewpithadbeenopenedin1682,and,in1725,therststeam engine in the Lothians was introduced to speed production.39

Even the colliers lot improved marginally, when, in 1728, theywere allowed into Libberton kirk (on condition they erected a gallery forthemselves at their own expense and stayed well apart from the rest ofthe congregation).40 In 1773, Peter Hunter, the lessee of Niddrie colliery,and a few others began a colliers fund to end their slavery,41 and, to anextent, that was achieved a few years later (also, colliers were no longerexempt from the Habeus Corpus Act).

Near the end of the century, Whyte reports that a few years beforetherehadbeenftyNiddriecollierslivinginMill-town(onthesouthsides

of the crossing of the present Niddrie Mains Road and DuddingstonPark), and what is called Hunters hall (position unknown), but in 1792

onlyveorsixremained.Healsoreports,areengineiserecting.42

The grave house

In 1735, forty-seven years after the chapels destruction, according toan inscribed slab set at the enclosures gate, Andrew Wauchope erectedthe little grave house over his ancestors tomb. According to Whyte, 57years after its erection, nothing then remained of the chapel itself,

butwhatisusedfortheburyingplaceofthefamily;theentryto which is now much ornamented, but in a very decent

manner.43

Whyte puts the chapel at the west end of the house, and remarks thatin the garden, a great many improvements have been made. He adds,`the adjacent rivulet, and what hath been done there, add great beautyto the whole.44

This appears to be the only near contemporary description ofwhat actually took place. Wauchope must have cleared away the chapel

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5Plan and elevation of the grave house


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rubble, possibly as part of his improvement of the grounds, possiblyto let memory of his familys allegiances fade more quickly from localmemory. Some carved stones, probably from the chapel, were insertedin the little wall that now encloses the front, but whether this is Andrewswork or that of later Wauchopes is unknown. (See section 4.)

The front itself is remarkably austere, perhaps to avoid offence or, evenworse, raising fears that the chapel was being rebuilt, and in it Jacobites

would practice Roman rites. There can be no doubt that Wauchope couldhave afforded something much grander, in the custom of the time.

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6Plan of Niddrie home-park in 1831 with (inset at larger scale), the house and outbuildings.

The grave house is coloured red, and the graveyard of 1685 is outlined in red.

(Note the position by the burn given for the chapel. In most later maps, the site of thegrave house is indicated as the chapels remains.

It is assumed that the 1831 placing of the chapel is an error, for Whyte implies thechapel and gravehouse were, if not on the same spot, at least very near.)

7The grave house in its originalposition at the west end of thehouse


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3.4 FourthPhase:lossofcontext(1944-2010)

By the twentieth century, the Wauchope estate consisted of three distinctparts: the beautiful grounds of the home park around the house (andgravehouse);thefarmingland;andnallythelandusedfor(oraffected

by), coal mining. Not only was there a working pit at the south-eastcorner of the park boundary and old worked-out pits nearby, but also,more crucially, underneath the ground was a vast labyrinth of worked

out tunnels, the left-overs of three centuries incessant digging.Living in the house was the childless widow of the last Wauchope

ofthatline,amajor-generalwhohaddiedghtingintheBoerWarin

1899. On her death in 1943, the estate was put up for sale.45

Some of it had already gone. The compulsory purchase byEdinburgh Corporation of 63,874 acres of Niddrie Mains and Niddrie Millfarm had been announced in January 1939, along with 2,284 acres ofNiddrieandCraigmillarEstates,forthepurposesofaplayingeldand

alloranyofthefurtherpurposesspeciedinthePhysicalTrainingand

Recreation Act, 1937.46 In September, war with Germany was declared.Five years later, the war was over, and the country was promised a

better life for all. Five years after that, in Edinburgh, 871 families ingreat distress were still housed in emergency housing camps, another1,272 were on the emergency housing list, and the Corporation wasnegotiating for the acquisition of Niddrie house and policies.47

By 1954, the former estate land northof the main road, from CraigmillarBrewery toNiddry village had lled

with Council housing, as had the landsouth of the road by what had beenNiddrie Mains Farm. The house stood

empty while its future was discussed.On Hogmanay, 1959, the Evening News headline announced EdinburghMansion house Gutted By A Spectacular Fire.

By 1970, the house had been demolished and the landscape scoured.

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8View of the house and grounds from the south, be-

forethereof1959.Thegravehouseisjustvisibleat the left side of the house and the burn runs at thefoot of the steps visible just right of centre.

(left)thehouseplanafterthere


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When the buildings round the grave house went up in 1969-70, therewas some attempt to use the lie of the land, if not its buildings, routes orgardens. The bed of the burn, for instance, became a footpath (the burnrunning in a culvert underneath). A copse of trees was left at the southend of Greendykes Road. The grave house became the centre of acourt,oneofthemanyaroundwhichthehousingwasarranged;notthe

best environment for a burial place but one that at least acknowledgedits existence. Niddrie (or Craigmillar) folk themselves made it a focal

point of their own celebrations in a pageant of Niddry history.In 1982, the decision was made to use the burial place as housing

for a standby generator. Electric wiring was tacked inside its vaultedroof, its south wall was covered on the inside by plywood and plasticsheeting, and concrete was laid to support an oil tank and a generator(see Appendix 2).

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11Site plan of the 1970s development

9The grave house in the 1970s

10View showing the use of the land. The path follows the route of theburn.


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In 1991, the grave-house setting became as ignominious asits use, when its surroundings were altered yet again. In a completeredesign of the housing, the two high blocks nearby were demolishedand replaced by standard houses set out in a standard way, and theform of lower blocks was changed to match, as were the lines of roads.All that might have given some sense of place to the homogenousmonotonywasremoved;eventheburnsformerbedwasraisedtothe

level of the surrounding land. Most crucially, all the courts were fenced

in and the space divided between the properties around them.This had a dire effect on the grave house. Instead of being used

to add one point of interest to acres of unvarying view or to give somesense of continuity to the thousands of people moved into an unknownarea, in design terms, this last remaining link to Niddries long past was

12

treated as of less than no account. Squashed between four backgreenslike any garden shed, it is now completely hidden from a street it nolonger even faces.

It is not known why this one scrap of the past was kept in the purgeof Niddries individuality. The destruction in the 1960s and 1990s wasotherwise so complete, it may be that there was a legally imposed restraint

on the Corporation. Both chapel and graveyard were consecrated burialplaces,and bothare still visitedonoccasionby far-ungWauchope

descendants. (The graveyard round the chapel, part excavated duringextensions to the house in the late nineteenth century, is presumablystill there, the bones under the backgreens.)

12The grave house from thestreet, 2010. (Its south side isjust visible right of the hedgeand left of the large, four-partblock.)

13The grave house from one ofthe backgreens, 2010

14Site plan, 2010The grave house and grave-yard are marked in red.


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4.0 The Wauchope Grave house Today

4.1 The grave house

The grave house today is, as it has always been, a small stone rectangularstructure, c.8.5m x 8.5m (c.3m high), with rubble walls on three sides.The fourth (the west front), has a polished stone, decorative face witha central round-headed opening containing an iron double door witha wrought ironwork grille above (centrepiece missing). The pedimentnialisalsomissing(see[7]). There is a niche on either side of the dooropening (one of which has in recent times had a block inserted, raisingthe level of its base for reason unknown), and a triangular pedimentabove it containing the Wauchope heraldic achievement.

Inside is a cross-vaulted roof, with a simple moulding on thecross, and a small vault centred on each side. The three walls whosesurface is visible are of dressed stone, each having a central, shallow,rectangular niche with a smaller niche on either side, most likely for thesettinginofmemorialspanels.One(centre,eastwall),islledwitha

white marble panel, whose inscription is said to have been composedby Rudyard Kipling and Hume Brown.48The fourth (south) wall has atemporary cover (plywood and sheeting), of 1982.

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15The grave-house front, 2010

16The interior (pre-1984 reuse)


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In the north-east corner of the vault is a raised area c.2.2 x 3mand 750mm high, with a rubble base visible on its east side, that itselfmay cover yet another vault in which the bones are laid. Built into (but notcovering), the top surface of this raised area is a slab with, on its centre,asmallshield(garb[wheatsheaf]belowtwomullets[ve-pointedstars])

and the initials W V shallowly incised into the stone. Around the edge ofthe slabs surface runs the inscription

HEAR . LYIS . ANE . HONORABILMAN . WILLIAM . WAVCHOP . OF . NIDRE-MERSCHIL

QVHA . DEC [EA] SI [T]YE . VI . DAY . FEBRAVR . 1587

Thelettersfaceinwardsand readclockwise,except forthe fth line

which faces outwards.Another slab, built into the west side of the base, reads

THIS . TOME . VES . BIGGIT . BE . ROBERT

VAVCHOP . OF . NVDRIMARSCH

AL . AND . ENTERIS . HEIR . P . P . 1587

Why the symmetrically-designed grave house was sited asymmetricallyover the tomb is unknown. It is possible - but unlikely - that the tomb wasmoved after the grave-houses erection.

The south wall of a late-nineteenth-century extension to the houseswest court remains attached to the north wall of the grave-house.

14

17(above right) The inscription on the top of the grave slab.Though shallowly inscribed there is more wear than onecouldexpectfromtheftyyearsexposuretotheele-mentswhenthechapelwasinruins;thatis,itmayhavebeen outside the chapel from the start.

18The inscription on the west face of the tomb


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4.2 The front yard wall

A low wall, formerly with iron gate and topped with iron railings, enclosesa tiny court in front of the grave house. In it are embedded a numberof carved stones possibly of 1502, taken from the chapel ruins (seeAppendix 1 for the Inventorys detailed description).

Condition

The wall itself is in fair condition but the carved stones in it are badlyeroded, as could be expected after more than three-hundred-yearsexposure to the elements. Railing stubs are still embedded in the wall,but not causing damage. The gate pillars have been truncated [21]andthe gate itself is missing. (See [7]for original appearance/)

22Three of the six carved stones noted in the Inventoryof 1921


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4.2 The surrounding site

The close, entered at the side of a large tenement through a padlockedgate, is paved with sets, remaining from its brief time as a hard courtcentrpiece in the 1970s. In front of the opening of the enclosing wall is astone slab.with the inscription

This Pavilion is Found[ed] by Andrew Waucho[pe] of

Niddrie Esqr the 8th day of October 1735

There was formerly also a commemorative tablet beside the vault,recording that an old cross, replaced in 1920, was formerly a portion ofthe chapel, but no sign of this remains.49

A modern metal fence closes off the tiny stretch of pavement in front ofthe grave-house yard from the surrounding backgreens.

Condition

Physically, the surroundings are in adequate condition. In terms of theirappropriateness, they are exceedingly poor.

17

23Inscription just outside gateway of the enclosure

24The immediate surroundings, 2010


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5.0 StatementofCulturalSignicance

The following section is based on and in accordance with the valuesset out in the Veniceand (Australia) Burra Charters (ICOMOS 1964and 1999 respectively), Historic Scotlands Memorandum of Guidance(1998), and Management Guidelines for World Cultural Heritage Sites(Fielden and Jokilehto, 1993).

In addition, it should be noted that the special circumstances of Niddrie have

beentakenintoaccount;thatis,itsconditionasanareawhoselong-establishedphysicalenvironment - buildings, landscape, routes and spaces - has been completely wiped outthen rebuilt in an entirely different form.

Such a loss of baseline markers of everyday life, of familiarity and continuityof experience, is similar, in essence, to that suffered by cities, such as Dresden, almostobliterated by bombing in the Second World War. This inevitably has an effect on theinhabitants, and on local culture, exacerbated here by the sites distance from the busycity life that the new inhabitants had known, by the complete alteration even of their newsurroundings. and by their present total lack of any variety whatsoever.

This being so, any remnant of a normal past, on which local culture is based,takesonamuchenhancedvalueandsignicance,regardless,toagreatextent,ofitsquality in comparison to similar works in communities that have not undergone the samedrastic change and environmental deprivation.

Itshouldalsobenotedthattheprimarysignicanceofthegrave

house is as a structure sheltering a grave; a place where a mansbones, after Christian burial, rest in peace, and where his familyhave honoured, and continue to honour his former existence. In allmatters concerning the site, this supersedes any value to Scottishculture it may have.

Emotive ValueOn the most basic level, every grave causes some degree of emotivereaction, because of its stark reminder of death. When the grave is ofconsiderable age, as it is here, the shortness of a lifespan compared tothe time that has passed since burial is also underlined.

In the particular context of Niddrie, the grave house has takenonevenmore signicanceasthe onesurviving tangiblereminder of

what was so recently a beautiful, historic area, and so gives the presentinhabitants one strong emotive link with their neighbourhoods past (seealso Social Value).

18

Evidential(orHistorical)ValueEvidentially, William Wauchopes remains provide proof of his existence,the grave slabs inscriptions proof of his sons part in the burial, and thegrave house proof of his descendants care of the family grave, with thewhole an example of sixteenth- and eighteenth-century burial practice,design and construction. More evidence may lie beneath ground in what

was the surrounding pre-1685 graveyard.Neither William Wauchope nor the son who buried him are

outstandingguresoftheirtime,butthefamilytookpartinmostmajor

events in centuries of Scottish history, particularly those of the sixteenthand seventeenth centuries.

As such, the evidence provided is not of outstanding value buthasaquietbutsignicantworth,greatlyraisedbyitsrarityinahistorically

depleted context (see Socialand Emotive Valuebelow).

Architectural(orAesthetic)ValueArchitecturally, the value is equally quiet but stands up well in comparison

with other contemporary grave-house designs, such as those in Greyfriarskirkyard. (Seventeenth-century works extraordinary exuberance havingalmost entirely disappeared by the 1700s.) The formal frontage of thegrave-house is austere, but well-proportioned, as is the interior.

Again, the value is greatly raised by the lack of any other featureofvisualnote inthewiderareaofhousing; thatis,by its rarity ina

context of aesthetic deprivation.

Social ValueWhile there is no value to society as a whole in an individuals grave, inthis particular case the community of the housing scheme have given

it a value, using the gravehouse as, in effect, a rock on which they cantry to rebuild some sense of continuity and stability for themselves in anenvironment otherwise bereft of character.

(Notably, in the writer s search for the grave-house, eight passers-by - men, women and children - had to be asked for directions, and allknew not only of the grave-house but also had versions of its past theywere pleased to relate.)


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6.1 Issues

6.1 Context

Contextistheprimaryissueofthesitescurrentstate;theenvironment

establishedin1991beingseverelydamagingtoitsculturalsignicance,

not because the grave house is now in the centre of a housing scheme -though that is unusual - but because of the lack of respect given to it by

the immediate surroundings.In its obscure position, the minimal space accorded to it, and

the aesthetically brutal railings round it, no difference has been madebetween the treatment of the grave house and that of, say, an electricitysubstation, despite its immensely higher value to local and, to a degree,national culture.

Given that the original context of the grave house is now and foreverentirely eradicated, the best must be made of the present circumstances.Nothing can be done about the tombs orientation to the now establishedstreet, nor to the positioning of houses, so these have to be accepted.

By improving the appearance of the sites perimeter, the currentobscurity of siting and access could beturned to positive advantage. A tiny, secret,different environment could be createdround the tomb; in effect, putting it into a

little timeless world of its own, unaffected bypresent and future change outside.

The simplest way to achieve such an effectwould be by planting a dense hedge of c.3min height on its exposed east, north and westsides that would cover the present railings,

hiding them from view (and giving even furtherdiscouragementtovandalism;see6.5).Thiswould also give a link back to the remarkableNiddrie gardens that, amongst so much else,were renowned for their hedges.

Annual pruning would be required to maintainthe hedges density, shape, and height.

25

View 1938 (the bridge right of the men is over the burn)

26(left) looking down the close drom the grave house to the street

27View 2010 (from approximately same standpoint)


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6.2 UseAs a burial place, use of the grave house should not be an issue, sinceany further use or reuse would be entirely inappropriate.

This does not rule out improving access to it. Since its presence isnot only of cultural value particularly to Niddrie, but also is indeed valuedthe Niddrie community, the more people know of the site and its historythe better. Access, therefore, is to be encouraged - but only under tightcontrol that ensures respect for the grave and the fabrics protection,

andinnumbersappropriatetothesize;onlyoneortwopeopleatatime.(The Doors Open Day event could prove a suitable annual occasion.) Aninformationpanelxed to the south sideof the closeby

its entrance, with a summary of the tombs history, would also be ofbenet.

6.3 Physical ConditionGiven that the present defective roof treatment is removed and replacedby a sound covering, and that other minor repairs to pointing and so onare also promptly carried out (see Part II for details), externally the sitesphysical condition is not an issue.

Internally, the remains of the 1984 reuse should be removed,other than the concrete pad whose removal would cause, at the least,considerable disturbance and, at the worst, further damage.

6.4 Previous AlterationsSince the 1984 alterations are reversible, they too are not an issue,assuming that they are indeed promptly reversed and the fabric madegood.

6.5 (Potential)AreasofConictTheareawhereconictcouldariseisbetweenthepositiveandnegative

aspects of focusing more attention on the site. On one hand, evidentrecognition of the tombs value (by the improvement of its immediatesurroundings suggested above), would consolidate the social andemotive aspects of its cultural value. On the other hand, it is a tomb,a grave where a mans bones rest, and intrinsically a quiet place ofreectionnot anexhibit.What ismore, by underlining itsvalue, the

perverse impulse to vandalise its fabric might well increase.

Access versus Respect for the DeadPotential conict here would be avoided by limiting access to one

celebratory day of the year, by ensuring that respect for the dead isemphasised on that day, and by adequate supervision of visitors duringthat day (at least one person, able to inform visitors of the sites history,in attendance at all times). The Craigmillar Festival Committee shouldbe approached to see if one or more of its members would be willing toundertake the duty.

Also, the creation of a `world of its own around the tomb (see6.1) would greatly help to engender a feeling of quiet respect.

Access versus VandalismVandalism of the site began from the moment Niddrie house was empty.Therehavebeeninnumerablegrafttiattacksovertheyears,andthe

original gutter covering (most likely lead) has long since disappeared.This, no doubt, is the reasonfor the large, industrial-type,protective railings.

Not only are these

railings ugly, in practice theprotection they offer is minimal,only a slight discouragementto trespass, for one boy couldeasily boost another overthem.

It is suggested that incombination with a high, densehedge, much better protectionwould be offered.

28The entrance being unblocked in1982.Notethegrafttirightofthedoorway.


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7 Conservation Policies

7.1 General Statement of Intent

i BecauseoftheWauchopegrave-housessignicanceasaburialplace,whichisworthyofrespect,andalsoitssignicance,historically,aesthetically,emotivelyandurbanistically,tothepeopleofNiddrieand,toanextent, to Scotland in general,

everycareshouldbetakentoensurethatthissignicanceisnolessafterworkdesignedtokeepit than before,

and so all interventions should be

- designed for minimal loss of original fabric, in order to cause the least possible loss of thesites value as an historical document

- as far as reasonably possible, reversible, so that future generations may alter todays

decisions if necessary to suit their needs without more damage to the sites fabric

- discernible(atleastoncloseinspection),asnewwork,inordertomaintainthesitesintegrityas an historical document, whilst maintaining the existing quality of the aesthetic.

ii Furthermore, all interventions in the immediate surroundings of the grave house, as well as the accessto it, should

- act - in function and in form - primarily to support and enhance the qualities of the original

work, whilst- at the same time have a quality of their own, equal - in its contemporary way - to that of the

original.

iii Any remaining element of age (external decorative stonework of front and pieces in enclosure wall,inscribed slab at entrance, internal mouldings on vault, niches, both inscribed grave slabs and memorial plaque oneast wall), should be given a protective cover during the course of the work in their vicinity. Particular care should

betakenwhensuchworkisunderway.Contractorsandtheirworkforceonsiteshouldbebothspecicallywarned

of the value of this fabric and of the especial need for care when working near it. This has particular relevanceto the enclosure wall whose high value may otherwise be overlooked.

iv Any excavation of the ground in the immediate vicinity, greater than a spade depth, should take placeonly under the supervision of an archaeologist, and with the awareness that other graves of pre-1685 date maywell be found. Any such graves should not be further disturbed except for the most pressing reason. Should such

reason exist, the distubed bones should be treated with respect and reburied with suitable religious ceremony inthe post-1685 graveyard with an inscribed stone to mark their re-interment.

This general statement of intent conforms to the advice set out in Historic Scotlands Memorandum of Guidance,

and Stirling Charter, and in the (ICOMOS) Veniceand Burra Charters.


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7.1 New Use

No new use should be made of the grave house or its yard. This does not preclude public access to theinterior at agreed times (for instance, during the annual Open Day event), so long as this is carried outwith respect for the grave, in numbers appropriate to the houses size and under tight supervision.

New use also may be made of the grave houses surroundings so long as such use is compatible

withrespectforthegraveinside,andcompatiblewiththehousingsculturalsignicance.

7.2 New Design Elements

No new design elements should be introduced internally, other than a memorial plaque to a directdescendant of the Niddrie Wauchopes line in one of the vacant niches, should that be so desired.

No new design elements should be introduced on the west front or in the enclosure yard.New design elements may be introduced to the sites immediate surroundings so long as these are

compatiblewithrespectforthegraveinside,andcompatiblewiththesitessignicance.

7.3 Fabric Repair and Maintenance

In all repair works, the general policy statement laid out above should be paramount. The guiding criterion

should be to save as much of the original material as possible, within the limits set by the overall healthof the building itself and by public safety. If there is a choice of equally effective repair techniques, thatwhich causes least disruption of the fabric should be chosen.

Old stones should be replaced by new only if so decayed they now threaten the buildings structural

integrity. Original structural members damaged by decay should be repaired rather than replaced. In allcases, physical intervention should be kept to the minimum necessary for the sites continuing health.

No method of repair, or of cleaning, or consolidation should be useda whose effects are irreversible, and

b that has not been previously tested in a comparable situation on site (as opposed toin laboratory conditions, or as an isolated piece of material exposed to weathering),for a minimum ten-year period without adverse results.

No pipework or cabling etc should be cut into the stonework, internally or externally. Noxingsshouldbe

madeontotheinteriororonthewestfront.Itemsthatatpresentaresoxedshouldberemovedandthefabric made good.

No new interventions, other than those for the buildings health, should be made internally or on the west

front.

Inspection of the buildings fabric should be carried out at agreed, regular intervals, and a named individualgiven the responsibility for seeing this is carried out, and that any repair found to be necessary is promptlyput in hand.


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In all repair and maintenance work, however minimal, the sites value and interest should be

explained to the workforce, and their involvement in its care encouraged.

7.5 Management

A named person or group should be made responsible for the management of the fabrics maintenance,

and for the sites immediate surroundings and any use to which these are put. Such a person or group

should understand the sites value, and that respect for the grave inside the house is essential.

7.6 Documenting change

All areas should be photographically recorded before and after work. Opening up of the original

construction should be kept to a minimum.A copy of the photographic record, together with copies of survey drawings and the new design

should be lodged with the National Monuments Record and the archivist of Glasgow City Council.

7.7 Working within Resources

A cost plan for the current proposals will be found in the accompanying documents. It should be notedthat, with the establishing of a system of regular inspection and repair, and with the limiting of use to

thosecompatiblewithandbenetingfromthebuildingsexistingformandarchitecturalquality,infuture

the degree of repairs and alterations needed will drastically diminish, as will costs over the long term.

8 Implementation and Project Review

All concerned parties should agree to implement these policies.. When current proposals have alsobeen agreed, a review panel should be established, consisting of the owners representative (orrepresentatives), and other interested parties. The procedure for decision-making should be clearly

set out and agreed, as should the procedure for calling meetings. A named individual should be maderesponsible for calling meetings and for seeing that the Plan is adhered to now and in the future.

Itisadvisablethat,onceworkisunderwayonsite,arstreviewshouldbeprogrammedtotakeplace in view of potential practical problems. When the work is complete, the plan should continue to bereviewed at yearly intervals (or more often, if the need occurs).

29The closehead, grave house and backgreen, 2010


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Notes

1 Areof1799damagedordestroyedmanydocumentsinthecharterroom.2 In 1363, one of the Niddrie family had at least part of the land, as did a Heriotin 1423, Rev. Mr Thomas Whyte, An Account of the Parish of Liberton, in Transactionsof the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, VI, Edinburgh, 1792, p. 348.3 Diurnal of Occurrents, p.32.4 Whyte, op.cit., p.345.5 MacGibbon and Ross, The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland,

vol.2, Edinburgh, 1887 pp. 57, 58.6 In 1858, Paterson reports, on making some excavations lately at the west endof the chapel vault, a number of bones were dug up. James Paterson, A History andGenealogy of the Family of Wauchope, Edinburgh, 1858, p.10.

7 Ibid, p.65.8 In 1502, the priest, Dominus Willielmus Werok, had a manse, an acre ofground for a glebe, the privilege of having two cows fed in the common pasture, andtwelve merks a year, as well as other possessions and emoluments. Whyte, op. cit.,p.345.9 Paterson, op.cit., p.23, (citing Act of Parliament.)10 MacGibbon and Ross, op.cit., vi, p.190 - Cakemuir too]11 Robert Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol.i, Edinburgh, 1858,p.225

12 Paterson, op.cit., p.27, (citing Criminal Trials).13 Ibid, p.23, (citing Calderwood).14 Gordon Donaldson, Scotland, The Making of the Kingdom: James V - JamesVII, Edinburgh, 1978, pp.189-192.15 Chambers, op.cit., p.238 (citing Diary of Robert Birrel, 1532-1605.).16 Paterson, op.cit., p.27.17 Ibid, p.28, citing Winchester XXIX, September 1603.18 Paterson, op.cit., p.28.19 Ibid.20 Ibid, p.29, citing family manuscript notes.21 Ibid, and Donaldson, op.cit., pp.374-376.22 Paterson p.29.23 Whyte, op.cit., p.351.24 During the occupation, English troops carried off the tower heads copper cover

MacGibbon and Ross, op.cit., p.64 (citing MS notebook in family possession).25 Don aldson, op.cit., p.246. George Bruces underwater mine of the seventeenthcentury was said to be a wonder of Scotrland, and in 1620 Samuel Johnstone ofElphinstone received a patent for new methods of draining pits and bringing coal to thesurface.26 The Act also gave the coal owners and masters the powers to to apprehendvagabonds and sturdy beggars and put them to work in the mines.A further Act of 1641extended those enslaved to include other workers in the mines and forced the colliers towork six days a week.

24

27 George Montgomery, A History of Newton Parish, Edinburgh 1984, p.58.28 Donaldson, op.cit., pp. 381-2.29 Whyte, op.cit., pp.349, 351, also Paterson, op.cit., p.34.30 Ibid, p.257.31 It is also possible that just too many graves were now near the house.32 Donaldson, op.cit., p. 382.33 Whyte, op.cit., p.349.

34 Paterson, op.cit..35 Most books on the area mention the tradition that Andrew Wauchopes youngson, with his nurse, visited the Jacobite army when it was camped at Duddingston withfood for it concealed in a basket.36 Correspondence of Andrew Wauchope, 1724-1783. NLS ref. GB 233/Acc669437 Ibid.38 Whyte,op.cit., p.34639 Paterson, op.cit., p.34 and Montgomery, op.cit., p.6140 Whyte, op.cit., p.295.41 History of the Scottish Coal Industry, p.30042 Whyte, p.346.43 Ibid, p.345.44 Ibid, p.346. In Johnstones map of 1831, the remains of Niddrie Chapel areshown as being some tens of metres further away from the house, very close to theburn, and quite seperate from the grave house. Most later maps place it on the grave-house site.45 Scotsman, 19 January 1943, p.3. Mrs Wauchope left a personal estate of 62,827. The heir of the estate itself was Edward de Moleyns, the son of her husbandselder sister Harriet, by her marriage to the 4th Lord Ventry (Scotsman, 4 Sept. 1917).46 Scotsman, 18 January 1939.47 Scotsman, 7 April, 28 June, 13 Ocober 1950.48 Scotsman, 4 May 1931. The inscription reads, In memory of Mrs HelenHume daughter of Lord Kimmerghame VJS who lived upwards of 45 years a virtuousaffectionate and complacent wife to Andrew Wauchope of Niddrie Marischal and boreto him thirteen children whom she reared with the tenderest affection averted by partialfondness or improper indulgence it was mild benevolent social and cheerful without

articeandwithoutdisguise.Herpersonwellformedandagreeablerespondedtothepurity of her mind by its constant neatness maintained without affectation of ornamentbe secured by temperance an uniform course of good health and when at last attackedby disease o she would have been content for the sake of her husband and family to livesometimelongeryetndingherdissolutionapproach,shewithperfectsubmissiontothedivine will and in testimony of an conscience void of offence calmly quitted her mortalframe without emotion or complaint. She died on the 10 th September 1780 at Bath whereby her desire her body is interred.49 Scotsman, 7 April 1950.


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Bibliography

(It should be noted that the core information on Niddrie comes from Whyte, Patersonand McGibbon and Ross, and is merely repeated with varying degrees of accuracy inother books, though these do offer other contextual information.)

Primary sourcesCorrespondence of Andrew Wauchope, 1724 - 1783. NLS ref. GB 233/Acc6694

Whyte, Rev. Mr Thomas, An Account of the Parish of Liberton, in Transactionsof the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, VI, Edinburgh, 1792

Secondary SourcesRobert Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol.i, Edinburgh, 1858Cockburn, Henry, Memorials of his time, Edinburgh, 1856

Ferenbach, Rev. Campbell, Annuls of Liberton, Edinburgh, 1975Good, George, Liberton in Ancient and Modern Times, Edinburgh, 1893MacGibbon, David and Ross, Thomas, The Castellated and Domestic

Architecture of Scotland, vol.2, Edinburgh, 1887Montgomery, George, A History of Newton Parish, Edinburgh 1984,Paterson, James, A History and Genealogy of the Family of Wauchope,

Edinburgh, 1858RCAHMS, The Tenth Report with Inventory of Monuments and Constructions inthe Counties of Midlothian and West Lothian, Edinburgh, 1929Small, John, The Castles and Mansions of the Lothians, Edinburgh, 1883

Speedy, Tom, Craigmillar and its Environs, Selkirk, 1892

Appendix 1

Listing:NIDDRIE MARISCHAL HOUSE TOMBHOUSE, NIDDRIE MARISCHALTERRACE[sic];HBNumber28103;ItemNumber:397;Mapsheet:NT37SWCategory:B; DateofListing,14-DEC-1970

Description: 18th century. Vaulted tomb-house adjoining western extensionof mansion (now demolished). Pedimented facade with quoin ends, rusticated

centrearchankedbyniches.

Description of carved stones in enclosure wall(from The Tenth Report with Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in theCounties of Midlothian and West Lothian, RCAHMS, Edinburgh, 1929, p.117)

Site visited 19211a moulded freestone base of a freestone standing cross, square on plan, 1ft 7ins across the base, and 1ft 2 ins in height. The missing shaft has been 11ins

broad by 7 ins deep and sat 6 ins within its base.2a circular bowl of freestone, 1ft high and 1ft 9ins in diameter, which is

apparently a font. It bears in relief on its outer surface shields on which are

grotesques3a freestone panel, 1ft 4ins high by 1ft 5ins broad, that bears an angel holding

a shield parted per pale and charged with dexter, a garb in base and two mulletsin chief, for Wauchope, and, sinister, a hunting horn stringed and garnished forForrester. Around the margin runs an illegible inscription in Gothic lettering

4a cross-head of freestone, with hollowed angles between the arms and lozenge-shaped voided centre, that measures 1ft 8ins above the necking band and 1ft

7insacrossthearms;thethicknessis5ins.Theshaftisoblongandmeasures

7 ins by 5ins.5

a panel of freestone, 1ft 7ins high by 1ft broad, bearing beneath a crown ashield charged with the Royal Arms of Scotland6the moulded head of a piscina or credence. It is 1ft 5ins in height and 3ft broad,

andhasamouldedhoodofogivalform,crokettedontheextradosandanked

bytwouncarvedshields;besideit,onthesouth-westernangleoftheenclosure,

is a little engaged shaft, 1ft 5ins high by 2 ins diameter, with moulded baseand necking.

25


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Appendix 2

Proposed Standby Generator tp Chapel at

Niddrie House Drive, 1982

Roongspecication

existing roof to be made watertight by the followingtreatment:- the joints between the slabs are to be rakedout to a depth of 25 & a backing plaotazote rope insertted.

The joints are to be primed by painting with Expandite

no.7primer&Thioex-Onegunnedin.Theentiresurfaceonce the sealant has cured is to be pointed with a siliconesealant treatment.

30

26


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Appendix 3

Proposed new planting to improve sites context

But the garden! the garden! ... [it] contained

absolutely everything that a garden could supply

for mans delightful use; peaches andoaks,gravel walks, and a wilderness grotesque andwild, a burn and a bowling green, shade and

sun, covert and lawn, vegetables and gloriousholly hedges - everything delightful either to theyoung or the old. Eden was not more varied.(Henry Cockburn, Memorials of his Time, Edinburgh,1856, p.17)

Cockburns glowing description of the now eradicatedNiddrie estate gardens provides part of the rationaleforthisproposal;onesmallfeaturefromthemwouldbe

recreated.The other reasons are, as previously given

1 protection from vandalism2 protection from weathering3 the creation of a self-contained world with the

grave house as its centre.

32Location of proposed hedge and information board

31Location of Niddrie house and burn in 1960 overlaid on the layout in 2010

Hedging: Leylandii for its fast-growing properties. Because of the risk of dam-age by vandals, plants of c.1.0m in height should be transplanted. Frequenttrimming will be necessary to achieve the required density.

Documents

Wauchope Burial House