Sandbeck Park Stables

Sandbeck Park Stables

Stable block, formerly incorporating chapel and domestic accommodation, built around 1760 with later additions. Designed by James Paine for the 4th Earl of Scarbrough. The building is constructed of ashlar magnesian limestone with a Westmorland slate roof, partially replaced in later periods by Welsh slate and twentieth-century pantiles.

The structure is arranged on a quadrangular plan facing west, with a wing set back on the right side and a T-shaped wing extending the facade to the front left. The main block presents a two-storey front with seven articulated bays. A plinth runs along the base of the wall. The centrepiece features a tall central round arch with an impost band that continues around two flanking square turret projections, each rising three storeys. These turrets have ground-floor sashes with glazing bars, unequally-hung nine-pane sashes to the first floor, and a cornice beneath the upper storey with an inward-facing oculus. The eaves cornice supports a hipped roof with a finial. Above the central arch sits a balustraded cornice topped by a clock tower. The clock sits beneath a band with an architraved surround, and eaves cornice lead to a hipped roof crowned with a wooden bellcote and weathervane.

The outermost bays break forward. Bay one features a partly walled-up window with a lintel tooled as voussoirs and a deep first-floor sill band leading to a large Diocletian window. The other bays follow a similar pattern, with bays two and six having blind ground-floor windows. Bay seven contains a twentieth-century casement, and a further twentieth-century casement was inserted to the right of bay six. Each bay has an eaves cornice supporting a hipped roof, with corniced ashlar ridge stacks positioned near each end.

The rear elevation shows a canted-bay projection on the left, which represents the apse of the former private chapel. The right return comprises twelve bays with sashes fitted with glazing bars and floor bands beneath six-pane sashes. The upper windows of bays nine through twelve are fitted with unequally-hung nine-pane sashes. The left return is lower in height and features a round-arched carriage entrance with mounting steps set against the wall to the right.

The courtyard elevation displays Diocletian windows to the ground floor, mostly with unequally-hung nine-pane sashes, a first-floor band, and six-pane sashes beneath the eaves cornice.

The wing set back on the right return is two storeys high with five bays, accompanied by a one-storey, three-bay wing wall to the left that links to the rear-right corner of the main range. The central part features an arcaded loggia with square piers and imposts supporting round arches. This masks a central six-panelled door with fanlight, flanked by blind and partly-glazed recesses with fanlights beneath round arches. The first floor has a deep sill band supporting unequally-hung nine-pane sashes, with an eaves cornice above supporting a hipped roof with corniced ashlar end stacks. The wing walls, set back further, each have three round arches, with the central arches being larger. The wing wall to the left features a central entrance flanked by blind panels, while that on the right has a blind panel flanked by open arches.

The T-shaped wing adjoining the front left of the main range is entered from the rear. Its rear elevation shows the left bay rising two storeys with a door to the left of a window on each floor. The other bays are single-storey, each having a segmental-arched carriage entrance with a keystone; the central arch is taller. A porte-cochere centred on arches one and two extends as a canopy to the left.

This is an important structure designed in direct relationship with Sandbeck Park house.