Stables and coach house with attached mortuary, in the grounds of The Retreat

Stables and coach house with attached mortuary, in the grounds of The Retreat

A mid-19th-century stables and coach house with an early 20th-century mortuary building attached. Both structures are listed at Grade II.

The stables and coach house are built of orange-cream brick with orange brick dressings beneath a slate roof. The mortuary is constructed of orange brick with a slate roof partly glazed.

The main building is aligned east-west and occupies the north end of the complex, positioned on the east side of a drive that runs north-south through the grounds towards a burial ground in the south-east corner of the site. It is a two-storey rectangular structure with distinctive full-height blind arcading to all walls, formed by brick pilasters with capitals supporting round arches.

The south elevation, which faces the drive, features a five-bay blind arcade. The ground-floor bays contain various openings: the first bay has a vertical rectangular window with gauged brick lintel and stone sill; the second bay has timber double doors with timber lintel; the third bay has a panelled door with overlight and gauged brick lintel; and the fourth and fifth bays have full-width timber double doors. At first-floor level, the first, third and fifth bays contain square windows with gauged brick lintels, stone sills and small-pane timber frames. The west gable end overlooks the drive and has two bays of arcading with an oculus in the gable apex. The north elevation mirrors this arrangement with a five-bay arcade and similar first-floor windows. The east gable end similarly features arcading and an oculus, now partly obscured by the mortuary building.

The stables and coach house have a ridge of two brick stacks towards the centre and a brick stack at the east gable end.

Internally, the building is divided by a cross-flight of stone steps separating the former stables on the west side from the tack room and coach house on the east. The stables retain three square drops for hay to the rear. The tack room and coach house have vertical timber boarding to the walls, with tack pegs on the west side of the coach house. The tack room contains a decorative cast-iron range. The first-floor structure employs machine-sawn king post trusses with raking struts.

The mortuary is a single-storey building with an east-facing gable elevation fronting the drive. Its gable features timber bargeboards and timber half-framing to the apex incorporating a ventilation louvre. The front elevation has central paired timber doors with segmental-arched heads, each with an adjacent two-light timber window beneath a single narrow timber lintel. The north elevation contains a single doorway with timber door and an adjacent three-light timber window.

The mortuary's interior comprises two mirrored outer rooms with external doors in the east elevation, opening into a larger central mortuary room lit by a roof light, with an external door in the north elevation. The rooms are finished with square terrazzo floor tiles and brown tile skirting. Hexagonal glazed tiles with a moulded timber band line the lower half of the walls, with moulded timber cornices and plastered ceilings throughout. The inner mortuary room retains all original fixtures and fittings, including a fixed shallow ceramic sink with wooden drainer, water cistern and incinerator.

Note: the smaller coach house with a room over attached to the south-east corner of the main building is not designated as being of special architectural or historic interest; however, works affecting the character of the listed building may require Listed Building Consent as determined by the Local Planning Authority.