The Coach House

The Coach House

Farm outbuilding, formerly stables to Bold Hall (now demolished). Early to mid-18th century, with late 19th century and 20th century alterations. Attributed to Giacomo Leoni, the Venetian architect, and built as part of the estate of Bold Hall, constructed for Peter Bold, Member of Parliament for Wigan, around 1730. The building is constructed of ashlar sandstone and red brick with ashlar detailing and dressings, coped gables, and a slated roof.

The Coach House forms a linear arrangement and may have formerly been part of a larger complex, of which the associated Home Farmhouse was a planned component.

The exterior features a symmetrical single-storey east elevation of eight bays rising from an ashlar plinth. This elevation is faced in massive ashlar masonry with channelled rustication. A pedimented central entrance of three bays is flanked by Doric pilasters, with glazing bar sash windows on either side. Flanking three-bay ranges contain tall windows below channelled heads, though most of these openings are now blocked or infilled. A shallow ashlar parapet and the stub of a single ridge chimney are present, along with 20th century ventilators. The north and south ends are built in red brick with ashlar pedimented gables and quoins. Central window openings within quoined surrounds are found in each gable, with that to the north blocked and that to the south adapted to form a wide double doorway with a 20th century girder as lintel. The west elevation has brick facings and ashlar dressings. An off-centre carriage entrance with quoined corners and a shallow arched head is positioned slightly advanced. Either side of this entrance are two stable doorways with overlights and associated window openings, all with quoined surrounds and channelled lintels with integral keystones. To the extreme left is an inserted or altered opening with top-hung boarded doors. Above three of the doorheads are circular overloft or taking-in openings with ashlar surrounds.

Internally, the building has been adapted to form a multi-purpose farm building but retains three former hearths and flagged and setted standings to the south end. The building is lofted throughout, with boarded floors carried on heavy timber cross beams. The roof is of common rafter construction with collars.

The Coach House forms a group with the Home Farmhouse. Giacomo Leoni, who was working in Cheshire at Lyme Park in the late 1720s, designed the new mansion and supporting buildings for the Bold Hall Estate. The mansion itself was a nine-bay, three-storeyed structure with an attached Corinthian portico and stone-faced ground storey in channelled rusticated masonry, demolished around 1900. The east elevation of the stable range replicates in miniature form the architectural detail of the former hall's principal elevation. The park to the hall was the second largest in South Lancashire. The principal elevations of both the stables and the present Home Farmhouse face in the direction of the site of the former hall. The former stable range and the associated dwelling house, now the Home Farmhouse, are the principal surviving elements of the Bold Hall Estate.