Crossroads and Characters
10. THE ROLLOS' STATELY HOME
The enormous Victorian edifice of Duncrub House, seat of the Rollo family, took more than two years to complete yet had a shorter life than many a Dunning cottage. Erected in 1861-63, it contained fifty rooms, many lined with pitchpine. Locals spoke in awe of it having more windows and doors than there were days of the year. Delicately-wrought chandeliers dropping from high moulded ceilings held candles and oil lamps, for the house was never electrified. Heating of the principal rooms was by massive stone and marble fireplaces. A journalist of 1950 described the house just before its demolition as being in excellent condition, but when the twelfth Lord Rollo inherited in 1946, he decided to sell it. 'It was too big to live in and too big to heat', though undoubtedly death-duties were also a major factor.
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