SPW042482 SCOTLAND (1933). Siverbuthall House. An oblique aerial photograph. This image has been produced from a damaged negative.

This area of Hawick was previously known as the 'Easter Heip', a name in use since the mid-17th century to describe the surrounding estate. During the 18th century, the 'Silverbuthall' name came into use - which refers to the location of Wilton Parish's archery targets or 'butts', and the tradition of having a silver arrow as a competition prize. The name was corrupted over time, shown in various records as 'Sillerbithaa' or 'Sillerbit Ha', to become Silverbuthall.



Sillerbit Hall itself, was a large mansion house built on farm land, bought by Thomas Laidlaw (tweed manufacturer and owner of William Laidlaw & Sons), from Walter Wilson in 1861. It was designed in a Scots Baronial style by John Thomas Rochead, who was also responsible for Hillhead House, Langlands Park, Hawick Corn Exchange (now the site of the Heritage Hub), Heronhill, Thornwood House (now the Mansfield House Hotel) and Saint Andrew's Free Church on North Bridge Street. The house was constructed between 1863 and 1866, with a new driveway created along what is now Churchill Road. The Rochead-designed gate house and piers still stand today on Havelock Street - the yellow sandstone piers with indents where the large wrought iron gates were once held into place. During WWI, the mansion was used by Belgian refugees. The sprawling hillside estate was bought by Hawick Town Council in 1945, with the mansion demolished a year later, being affected greatly by dry rot. A window panel from the house survives in Hawick Museum, whilst stained glass representations of William Of Deloraine and Henry Of Cranstoun (both fictional characters in Walter Scott novels) were saved and until recently were on display at Drumlanrig's Tower. Hawick Museum also holds a wedge-shaped perforated hammer of rough surfaced sandstone, which was found on the estate by J. Anderson and G. F. Black, in 1888.



Silverbuthall estate helped to solve Hawick's post-WWII housing shortage. The first 90 ''prefab' homes were erected between 1945 and 1947, with more built in the following years - compensating for a lack of natural building materials available at the time. Prefabricated homes were a specialist dwelling manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that could be easily shipped and assembled. They consisted of a mixture of 'Arco' and 'Uni-Seco' types. The 'Arco' was developed and constructed by Taylor Woodrow, as an asbestos-clad kitchen and bathroom capsule. It had a longer utility life, but came with a higher cost of construction per unit. Produced by the London based Selection Engineering Company Ltd., the 'Uni-Seco' was a two-bedroom flat-roofed bungalow, with a resin-bonded plywood timber-frame and asbestos wall sections. It was based on a military wartime office design, with an additional lounge and side door. The last of Hawick's prefabs were demolished in the early 1960s, with the completion of new housing stock at Howdenbank.

Great work! I'm happy to validate this identification and I'll pass on the news to get its location updated and our records changed. This one has been puzzling a lot of people for a long time - me included!



Thanks again,



Brian Wilkinson

Britain From Above Activity Officer (Scotland

These houses are on an area of Hawick known as Silverbuthall. Stirches road runs across the top left of the picture with the houses to the Noth East of the road. The photo is taken looking approx West. OS 1:2500 1898 map shows the area clearly.



Google earth has a 1945 image showing the prefabs built on the area surrounding the main house following demolition.

Could this be Hartrigge House, Jedburgh.



The house and terrain looks similar but I am not able to identify the other buildings apart from what looks like the stable block on the right.



The house was demolished in the fifties but the stable block still exists.

Hullo folks,



This image is labelled "Hawick", along with the following glass plates that do show the town, in the Aerofilms Ltd Register. Whilst I agree with the clearly "Scottish Baronial" style, and whilst there are/were areas of woodland with these sorts of shapes in the landscape around Hawick, is there any chance it could be Irish? I only ask because the preceeding images in the sequence are in Ireland, and these few Scottish shots are then followed by Channel Islands images.



Most likely it's somewhere in the Scottish Borders.



Yours, Katy

This is Aldourie Castle on the banks of Loch Ness. It's been extended somewhat to the right since this photo was taken.

Shandon House, Gare Loch?

I think that this is known as Scottish Baronial Architecture which might help anyone trying to identify this photo.

Threave in a former shape?

Castle Douglas?

Wonderful Scots-Baronial house - very distinctive.

A very beautiful building