Glen House
Under restoration by Alister Glover, Bespoke Bicycle Repairs.
The History of Glen House by Dr. A. Whiteford
Glen House
Glen House, the solid two-storey, stone built house that stands alone on the corner of Willowglen Road at Manor Farm, is now about 160 years old. The house stands in a commanding position at the north-west corner of the Lews Castle Grounds; its secluded south-facing position, its large and spacious bright rooms, and its open garden with a stream running close by, have ensured it has always been a desirable residence for the town’s folk:
“Glen House has the dignity, facilities and amenities compatable with the position of a senior official.”
So wrote one applicant (out of the 59 applications received) for the tenancy of Glen House when responding to an advert placed in the Stornoway Gazette by the Stornoway Trust in early spring 1956. Alas, this applicant was unsuccessful as were applications by officials from the Customs and Excise, the Post Office, the Meteorological Office, the Air Ministry, the Castle Technical College, school teachers, as well as weavers, painters and decorators.
The origins of Glen House are speculative, but it was most likely brought into the present form by Sir James Matheson in the late 1840s/early 1850s. There is no indication of a building on the site in either John Wood’s Town Plan of Stornoway of 1821 or James Chapman’s Map of Stornoway of 1840. The first census of 1841 makes no specific mention of the house, only the people living in the individual properties on Mill Street as the present-day one-way section of Willowglen Road was then named. The Admiralty Chart of Stornoway Harbour for 1846 also covers the town and indicates a small building at the site of Glen House marked ‘school’. In 1833 there were no less than 13 schools of one type or another in Stornoway and it was the time of the Circulating Schools, schools that popped up for six to eighteen months to encourage people to read and write. They were organised by the Edinburgh Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools and teaching was based on the Scriptures.
By the late 1840s the Ordnance Survey were making progress in mapping Lewis under the patronage of Sir James Matheson, who had purchased the island in 1844. 1849 saw the survey of Stornoway: the first edition six inch map shows a large building to be standing on the site of Glen House. A couple of years later the enumerator of the 1851 census records the last entry in Mill Glen simply as: “Mill Glen” (he had proceeded from Marybank) and the house was occupied by the carter Alex Macdonald, his wife Christina and their family. The Ross and Cromarty Valuation Roll of 1855 refers to Mill Glen Farm (as distinct from Manor Farm which stood on the opposite side of the road) with the tenant as Alex Macdonald. This suggests that the house was perhaps a farm house with a small holding.
Speculation ceases after 1857! In his manuscript ‘The Beginning and the End of the Lewis Chemical Works 1857-1864’, the stonemason Donald Morison makes repeated reference to the building as “The Glen House” - always with the definite article. In 1857, Henry Caunter, a close friend of Sir James Matheson, moved to Lewis as Matheson’s man of science to investigate and exploit the islands’ vast peat lands to produce the newly discovered fuel, paraffin, for the lighting oil market. Caunter was very much a man of standing, coming from the rich merchant class of Devon and Matheson had Glen House improved for him, probably around 1855, as Morison records:
“Mr Caunter resided at the Castle while The Glen House was under repair.”
It was the author of these words, the stonemason Donald Morison, who built the single-storey extension at the eastern end of the building as a laboratory for Dr Benjamin Paul, the sharp young chemist who was appointed by Matheson in 1858 to develop Caunter’s fledgling works into a large scale manufactory. Morison again:
“There was a laboratory built and fitted up (adjoining The Glen House where Mr Caunter resided) where Dr Paul conducted the analysis of peat tar.”
It was in Glen House that an incident occurred that was to eventually wreck one of Matheson’s plans for Lewis. Matheson was very interested in science and an opportunist; he saw the new developments in science as the way forward. In a welcoming address at a dinner given by the town’s folk in Stornoway, Regius Professor Gordon of Glasgow University spoke of the ‘vast importance’ Matheson held for the ‘application of the doctrines of science in the practical Arts’. However, as one of his industrial ventures, the Lewis Chemical Works was thrown into disarray just as the venture was showing great promise when Dr Paul unexpectedly left. One evening in April 1862 in Glen House, Henry Caunter, recently promoted as the Manager of the Chemical and Brick Works, was discussing an advert for a new chemist with Donald Morison, as well as the continued employment prospects of James MacFadyen, an itinerant brick-maker with an over-fondness for drink.
MacFadyen, on learning of Caunter’s quest for a new chemist to fill the able Dr Paul’s shoes, turned his wits, charm and blarney up to full volume, as Morison recalls:
“James MacFadyen thanked Mr Caunter for delaying his dismissal, rising to leave the room proved that he had a mind above brick and clay. Congratulated Mr Caunter as his advancement as Manager, added with emphasis ‘When a chemist comes to the works you will be only Manager in name. Why get a chemist when I can do it?’. Wonderful to relate, instead of laughing at the Irish brick-maker for his audacity Mr Caunter replied by saying ‘Well James in that case a chemist need not be advertised for the refinery’.”
The rest, as they say, is history or as Morison puts it:
“Thus on the evening of the 22nd of April 1862, the ruinous failure of the Lewis Chemical Works was pronounced in Glen House. H Caunter Esq and James MacFadyen to take the place of Dr B Paul.”
Under proper guidance and despite the recent discovery of crude oil in the USA in 1859, subsequent events strongly suggest that Glen House could have been the nerve centre of a thriving enterprise instead of the scene of its downfall.
Henry Caunter continued to occupy Glen House with his house keepers - Helen Ross and subsequently Annabella McLeod - and a succession of young men whose status, according to the census forms, was raised from ‘stable boy’ to ‘groom’ to ‘coach man’ as Caunter (the Head of the Household) advanced in years. In his final years, his daughter Sarah - a spinster who lived in Edinburgh - came to stay at Glen House to nurse her father in his last days. Caunter had become a widower in the early 1840s and passed away in 1881.
Although Morison always refers to the property in his manuscript of 1897 as ‘The Glen House’, official records refer to the house variously as ‘Millburn Cottage’, ‘Mill Glen Cottage’, ‘Caunter’s House’, ‘Willow Glen Cottage’, and ‘Glenvilla’.
Sir James Matheson died in 1878 and his wife became the proprietrix of Glen House. She was a close friend of Henry Caunter and they shared musical interests. After Caunter’s death, Glen House continued its musical connection; by 1885 Thomas Mackay, the Matheson’s piper, had taken up residence. Records show that he was succeeded as tenant by Hughina Mackay followed by Mrs Donald Mackay who were possibly related to the piper. By 1901, when the estate had passed to Major Duncan Matheson, Glen House was briefly uninhabited.
By 1905, Glen House was again the preserve of estate staff with Hugh Macleod, the Lewis Factor, being in occupation until 1913. He was followed by James Parker Anderson, a teacher at The Nicolson Institute, but his tenancy was short lived as he was killed in the First World War.
Records covering the next twenty years are scarce, but by the 1930s the family of Hugh Matheson the baker (who owned the shop on Frances Street, now Superdrug) occupied the house. Hugh Matheson Jnr. (known as Shark’s Teeth) passed away early in the spring of 1942 as war raged in Europe.
By this time Glen House was in public ownership: Lewis had been gifted to the people of Lewis by the last landowner, Lord Leverhulme, in 1923. Stornoway and its surrounding districts were now under the stewardship of the Stornoway Trust. Applications for the lease were invited and with the shortage of accommodation due to the war, there were a number of applicants including the Sheriff Substitute, Ross and Cromarty County Council who required accommodation for a Road Surveyor, and from a number of individuals, some offering to pay high rents perhaps wishing to escape the privations of war-time mainland living.
In the event the lease was offered to Ross and Cromarty County Council. However, the war intervened before the Surveyor could move in as, on the 20th of July 1942, the Admiralty formally requisitioned Glen House for occupation by the naval officer in charge at Stornoway: by this time the town and harbour had become an important Naval and Fleet Air Arm base,
The fog of war was about the descend on Glen House and many feathers were ruffled by this action. The keys were handed over to the Admiralty on the 27th of July, but occupation was not immediately taken up. With the housing shortage in Stornoway and the continued inoccupation of the building there were strong protests local and from Ross and Cromarty County Council. The Admiralty stone-walled that Glen House was essential for security.
As the tide of war turned and 1944 came to a close, derequisition loomed and the Stornoway Trust again sought a new tenant. In December 1944 John M Macleod was granted a lease, the building being released from requisition in July 1945 as the war was ending. A couple of years later Janet McLeod - possibly a relative - applied for the tenancy which she held until 1956.
1956 was the year of the 59 applicants for the lease. The lucky tennant was another Nicolson Institute teacher, Albert Nicoll, who was the school’s Depute Rector for many years. The unique position of Glen House - within the Castle policies - meant that it was technically outside the Burgh boundary but the resourceful Albert Nicoll managed to rent a garage in the town to enable him to qualify to stand for election as a councillor. It was during his occupation of Glen House that one of the large stone pillars at the entrance to the driveway onto the main road in Willow Glen was removed to improve access and exit; the post had been damaged by traffic. The other pillar remains.
Albert Nicoll’s lease ran from Whitsunday 1956 until May 1963 when the Trust decided to use Glen House as the estate factor’s residence, and they set about making alterations to the laboratory extension which had long since become the kitchen.
In 1964 the old kitchen chimney was removed, a strange looking structure on the north facing wall of the extension, next to the road. When Donald Morison built the extension/laboratory in 1857, the square, stone-built chimney rose about six feet above the wall. Being in the lee of the main building, the chimney must have provided poor drafting and so, at a later date, the chimney was extended to twice its height but using brick rather than stone, the brickwork being built on top of the chimney cope, with a new cope being added. The brick most likely came from the brickworks at Garrabost: by the 1870s Henry Caunter was manager of these works which continued to operate until at least the mid-1880s.
D M Smith, the estate factor, lived in Glen House from the mid-1960s but by the late 1970s the building was starting to feel its age and the Trust decided to set about improving the property. By 1980, the loft had been insulated and treated by Rentokil and storage heaters installed to improve the heating.
In May 1980, the house was surveyed inside and out, with many of the fixtures and fittings recommended for renewal or attention notably the roof, windows, walls and guttering. However, the writing was on the wall, or rather on the floor. Movement of the massive floor timbers in the dining room suggested a major problem of rotting wood.
Sometime later the shutters went up and Glen House fell empty. Over the years its walls had witnessed many a tale but its interior was now silent. Walking around its spacious, bright rooms, corridors and elegant stiarcase, it is easy to imagine a tearful, gout-ridden Henry Caunter lamenting James MacFadyen’s naughty deeds as the chemical works collapsed, or, the skirl of the bagpipes, or, a fleet of naval officers relaxing over a drink and talking of the war, or, the homely delights of family life.
Although Glen House bears the scars of decay, it is being given a fresh dignity as it is revitalised to provide new amenities for the town and Castle Grounds. With this new lease of life, the interior is being remodelled to provide a café/cycle repair shop, somewhere to relax after enjoying the Castle Grounds. The new tenant - Alistair Glover of BeSpoke Bicycles- with the help of the Stornoway Trust, is making sure that the iconic building will survive for a good many years to come.
Ali Whiteford
Bibliography
‘Lewis’ by Donald Macdonald, Gordon Wright Publishing, Edinburgh, 1978.
‘The Castles of the Lews’ by Peter Cunningham, Acair, Stornoway, 2008.
Census Returns, 1851-1911.
Ross and Cromarty County Council Valuation Rolls
National Library of Scotland website
Scotland’s People website
Acknowledgements
Iain Maciver and staff at the Stornoway Trust.
Malcolm Macdonald and Ken Galloway of Stornoway Historical Society.
Librarians of Stornoway Library
Glen House
Under restoration by Alister Glover, Bespoke Bicycle Repairs.
The History of Glen House by Dr. A. Whiteford
Glen House
Glen House, the solid two-storey, stone built house that stands alone on the corner of Willowglen Road at Manor Farm, is now about 160 years old. The house stands in a commanding position at the north-west corner of the Lews Castle Grounds; its secluded south-facing position, its large and spacious bright rooms, and its open garden with a stream running close by, have ensured it has always been a desirable residence for the town’s folk:
“Glen House has the dignity, facilities and amenities compatable with the position of a senior official.”
So wrote one applicant (out of the 59 applications received) for the tenancy of Glen House when responding to an advert placed in the Stornoway Gazette by the Stornoway Trust in early spring 1956. Alas, this applicant was unsuccessful as were applications by officials from the Customs and Excise, the Post Office, the Meteorological Office, the Air Ministry, the Castle Technical College, school teachers, as well as weavers, painters and decorators.
The origins of Glen House are speculative, but it was most likely brought into the present form by Sir James Matheson in the late 1840s/early 1850s. There is no indication of a building on the site in either John Wood’s Town Plan of Stornoway of 1821 or James Chapman’s Map of Stornoway of 1840. The first census of 1841 makes no specific mention of the house, only the people living in the individual properties on Mill Street as the present-day one-way section of Willowglen Road was then named. The Admiralty Chart of Stornoway Harbour for 1846 also covers the town and indicates a small building at the site of Glen House marked ‘school’. In 1833 there were no less than 13 schools of one type or another in Stornoway and it was the time of the Circulating Schools, schools that popped up for six to eighteen months to encourage people to read and write. They were organised by the Edinburgh Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools and teaching was based on the Scriptures.
By the late 1840s the Ordnance Survey were making progress in mapping Lewis under the patronage of Sir James Matheson, who had purchased the island in 1844. 1849 saw the survey of Stornoway: the first edition six inch map shows a large building to be standing on the site of Glen House. A couple of years later the enumerator of the 1851 census records the last entry in Mill Glen simply as: “Mill Glen” (he had proceeded from Marybank) and the house was occupied by the carter Alex Macdonald, his wife Christina and their family. The Ross and Cromarty Valuation Roll of 1855 refers to Mill Glen Farm (as distinct from Manor Farm which stood on the opposite side of the road) with the tenant as Alex Macdonald. This suggests that the house was perhaps a farm house with a small holding.
Speculation ceases after 1857! In his manuscript ‘The Beginning and the End of the Lewis Chemical Works 1857-1864’, the stonemason Donald Morison makes repeated reference to the building as “The Glen House” - always with the definite article. In 1857, Henry Caunter, a close friend of Sir James Matheson, moved to Lewis as Matheson’s man of science to investigate and exploit the islands’ vast peat lands to produce the newly discovered fuel, paraffin, for the lighting oil market. Caunter was very much a man of standing, coming from the rich merchant class of Devon and Matheson had Glen House improved for him, probably around 1855, as Morison records:
“Mr Caunter resided at the Castle while The Glen House was under repair.”
It was the author of these words, the stonemason Donald Morison, who built the single-storey extension at the eastern end of the building as a laboratory for Dr Benjamin Paul, the sharp young chemist who was appointed by Matheson in 1858 to develop Caunter’s fledgling works into a large scale manufactory. Morison again:
“There was a laboratory built and fitted up (adjoining The Glen House where Mr Caunter resided) where Dr Paul conducted the analysis of peat tar.”
It was in Glen House that an incident occurred that was to eventually wreck one of Matheson’s plans for Lewis. Matheson was very interested in science and an opportunist; he saw the new developments in science as the way forward. In a welcoming address at a dinner given by the town’s folk in Stornoway, Regius Professor Gordon of Glasgow University spoke of the ‘vast importance’ Matheson held for the ‘application of the doctrines of science in the practical Arts’. However, as one of his industrial ventures, the Lewis Chemical Works was thrown into disarray just as the venture was showing great promise when Dr Paul unexpectedly left. One evening in April 1862 in Glen House, Henry Caunter, recently promoted as the Manager of the Chemical and Brick Works, was discussing an advert for a new chemist with Donald Morison, as well as the continued employment prospects of James MacFadyen, an itinerant brick-maker with an over-fondness for drink.
MacFadyen, on learning of Caunter’s quest for a new chemist to fill the able Dr Paul’s shoes, turned his wits, charm and blarney up to full volume, as Morison recalls:
“James MacFadyen thanked Mr Caunter for delaying his dismissal, rising to leave the room proved that he had a mind above brick and clay. Congratulated Mr Caunter as his advancement as Manager, added with emphasis ‘When a chemist comes to the works you will be only Manager in name. Why get a chemist when I can do it?’. Wonderful to relate, instead of laughing at the Irish brick-maker for his audacity Mr Caunter replied by saying ‘Well James in that case a chemist need not be advertised for the refinery’.”
The rest, as they say, is history or as Morison puts it:
“Thus on the evening of the 22nd of April 1862, the ruinous failure of the Lewis Chemical Works was pronounced in Glen House. H Caunter Esq and James MacFadyen to take the place of Dr B Paul.”
Under proper guidance and despite the recent discovery of crude oil in the USA in 1859, subsequent events strongly suggest that Glen House could have been the nerve centre of a thriving enterprise instead of the scene of its downfall.
Henry Caunter continued to occupy Glen House with his house keepers - Helen Ross and subsequently Annabella McLeod - and a succession of young men whose status, according to the census forms, was raised from ‘stable boy’ to ‘groom’ to ‘coach man’ as Caunter (the Head of the Household) advanced in years. In his final years, his daughter Sarah - a spinster who lived in Edinburgh - came to stay at Glen House to nurse her father in his last days. Caunter had become a widower in the early 1840s and passed away in 1881.
Although Morison always refers to the property in his manuscript of 1897 as ‘The Glen House’, official records refer to the house variously as ‘Millburn Cottage’, ‘Mill Glen Cottage’, ‘Caunter’s House’, ‘Willow Glen Cottage’, and ‘Glenvilla’.
Sir James Matheson died in 1878 and his wife became the proprietrix of Glen House. She was a close friend of Henry Caunter and they shared musical interests. After Caunter’s death, Glen House continued its musical connection; by 1885 Thomas Mackay, the Matheson’s piper, had taken up residence. Records show that he was succeeded as tenant by Hughina Mackay followed by Mrs Donald Mackay who were possibly related to the piper. By 1901, when the estate had passed to Major Duncan Matheson, Glen House was briefly uninhabited.
By 1905, Glen House was again the preserve of estate staff with Hugh Macleod, the Lewis Factor, being in occupation until 1913. He was followed by James Parker Anderson, a teacher at The Nicolson Institute, but his tenancy was short lived as he was killed in the First World War.
Records covering the next twenty years are scarce, but by the 1930s the family of Hugh Matheson the baker (who owned the shop on Frances Street, now Superdrug) occupied the house. Hugh Matheson Jnr. (known as Shark’s Teeth) passed away early in the spring of 1942 as war raged in Europe.
By this time Glen House was in public ownership: Lewis had been gifted to the people of Lewis by the last landowner, Lord Leverhulme, in 1923. Stornoway and its surrounding districts were now under the stewardship of the Stornoway Trust. Applications for the lease were invited and with the shortage of accommodation due to the war, there were a number of applicants including the Sheriff Substitute, Ross and Cromarty County Council who required accommodation for a Road Surveyor, and from a number of individuals, some offering to pay high rents perhaps wishing to escape the privations of war-time mainland living.
In the event the lease was offered to Ross and Cromarty County Council. However, the war intervened before the Surveyor could move in as, on the 20th of July 1942, the Admiralty formally requisitioned Glen House for occupation by the naval officer in charge at Stornoway: by this time the town and harbour had become an important Naval and Fleet Air Arm base,
The fog of war was about the descend on Glen House and many feathers were ruffled by this action. The keys were handed over to the Admiralty on the 27th of July, but occupation was not immediately taken up. With the housing shortage in Stornoway and the continued inoccupation of the building there were strong protests local and from Ross and Cromarty County Council. The Admiralty stone-walled that Glen House was essential for security.
As the tide of war turned and 1944 came to a close, derequisition loomed and the Stornoway Trust again sought a new tenant. In December 1944 John M Macleod was granted a lease, the building being released from requisition in July 1945 as the war was ending. A couple of years later Janet McLeod - possibly a relative - applied for the tenancy which she held until 1956.
1956 was the year of the 59 applicants for the lease. The lucky tennant was another Nicolson Institute teacher, Albert Nicoll, who was the school’s Depute Rector for many years. The unique position of Glen House - within the Castle policies - meant that it was technically outside the Burgh boundary but the resourceful Albert Nicoll managed to rent a garage in the town to enable him to qualify to stand for election as a councillor. It was during his occupation of Glen House that one of the large stone pillars at the entrance to the driveway onto the main road in Willow Glen was removed to improve access and exit; the post had been damaged by traffic. The other pillar remains.
Albert Nicoll’s lease ran from Whitsunday 1956 until May 1963 when the Trust decided to use Glen House as the estate factor’s residence, and they set about making alterations to the laboratory extension which had long since become the kitchen.
In 1964 the old kitchen chimney was removed, a strange looking structure on the north facing wall of the extension, next to the road. When Donald Morison built the extension/laboratory in 1857, the square, stone-built chimney rose about six feet above the wall. Being in the lee of the main building, the chimney must have provided poor drafting and so, at a later date, the chimney was extended to twice its height but using brick rather than stone, the brickwork being built on top of the chimney cope, with a new cope being added. The brick most likely came from the brickworks at Garrabost: by the 1870s Henry Caunter was manager of these works which continued to operate until at least the mid-1880s.
D M Smith, the estate factor, lived in Glen House from the mid-1960s but by the late 1970s the building was starting to feel its age and the Trust decided to set about improving the property. By 1980, the loft had been insulated and treated by Rentokil and storage heaters installed to improve the heating.
In May 1980, the house was surveyed inside and out, with many of the fixtures and fittings recommended for renewal or attention notably the roof, windows, walls and guttering. However, the writing was on the wall, or rather on the floor. Movement of the massive floor timbers in the dining room suggested a major problem of rotting wood.
Sometime later the shutters went up and Glen House fell empty. Over the years its walls had witnessed many a tale but its interior was now silent. Walking around its spacious, bright rooms, corridors and elegant stiarcase, it is easy to imagine a tearful, gout-ridden Henry Caunter lamenting James MacFadyen’s naughty deeds as the chemical works collapsed, or, the skirl of the bagpipes, or, a fleet of naval officers relaxing over a drink and talking of the war, or, the homely delights of family life.
Although Glen House bears the scars of decay, it is being given a fresh dignity as it is revitalised to provide new amenities for the town and Castle Grounds. With this new lease of life, the interior is being remodelled to provide a café/cycle repair shop, somewhere to relax after enjoying the Castle Grounds. The new tenant - Alistair Glover of BeSpoke Bicycles- with the help of the Stornoway Trust, is making sure that the iconic building will survive for a good many years to come.
Ali Whiteford
Bibliography
‘Lewis’ by Donald Macdonald, Gordon Wright Publishing, Edinburgh, 1978.
‘The Castles of the Lews’ by Peter Cunningham, Acair, Stornoway, 2008.
Census Returns, 1851-1911.
Ross and Cromarty County Council Valuation Rolls
National Library of Scotland website
Scotland’s People website
Acknowledgements
Iain Maciver and staff at the Stornoway Trust.
Malcolm Macdonald and Ken Galloway of Stornoway Historical Society.
Librarians of Stornoway Library