Stable Block

This is a stable block, constructed in 1837 by Edward Blore as part of Combermere Park. It’s built of red brick in a random bond pattern, with ashlar dressings, and has a slate roof with lead flashings. The design comprises two-storey and single-storey ranges arranged around a rectangular courtyard, with three-storey turrets punctuating the composition.

The main front features a projecting archway slightly off-centre. This has a four-centred arch with ashlar hinge dressings, a double-chamfered reveal, and a hood mould. Above the archway is a gable with ashlar coping, and flanking the arch are octagonal turrets that taper in girth via offsets and are topped with lead spirelets. To either side of the central arch are four bays of blank walling, divided by buttresses with ashlar offsets, each featuring a blind lancet window. Two-storey cottages are positioned to the right and left of the main façade. These cottages each have a square turret to their corner closest to the centre, with a doorway on the ground floor featuring an ashlar lintel and Tudor hood mould. Lancet windows are present on the first and second floors, separated by a string course, and the eaves have cusped moulding supporting a concave pyramidal roof. The left-hand cottage has a slightly recessed gable to the left of the turret, with a canted bay window with a hipped roof on the ground floor and a two-light window on the first floor, also with a stone hood mould. Ashlar coping and a finial adorn the gable. The right-hand cottage features a similar bay window to the left, followed by two further bays, the central one slightly recessed, with a two-light ground floor window with a stone hood mould and a 20th-century two-light window on the first floor. To the right of this is a slightly projecting bay, with a two-light window on the left and a similar window centred on the first floor, both with Tudor hood moulds and stone sills. A two-flue chimney stack with octagonal flues is located to the left of centre of this block.

The courtyard includes a three-bay, two-storey carriage house range opposite the entrance arch. This carriage house has a central projecting bay with a six-panel door on the ground floor, an ashlar lintel and hood mould above, and double carriage doors with ashlar hinge dressings and ashlar four-centred arches either side. Above, on the first floor, are three two-light windows with ashlar sills and lintels, and three gablets above, featuring stone kneelers, coping, and sceptre finials. Single-storey ranges extend on either side of the carriage house, each with two-light windows.