Stable Block And Riding School

Stable Block and Riding School

This stable block and riding school at Wentworth Woodhouse is now part of a college of further education. Construction began in 1766 and the stables were in use by 1779, with the riding school completed in 1789. The complex was designed by John Carr of York for Charles Wentworth, 2nd Marquis of Rockingham, and was completed for his nephew the 4th Earl Fitzwilliam. The buildings were converted to their present educational use around 1950.

The structures are constructed in ashlar and dressed sandstone with Westmorland slate roofs. The complex follows a quadrangular plan with the riding school positioned behind to the rear right.

The front elevation displays Palladian style architecture across two storeys with three-storey towers, extending for 15 bays. A plinth runs along the base with rusticated quoins at the corners. The central section features a portico with paired Tuscan columns flanking a tall round-arched carriage entrance that retains its contemporary iron gates. The arch has an impost band and console-shaped keystone. The portico has a plain frieze and heavy mutules to the pediment. Bays 4 and 12 break forward and are rusticated. The roof ridge is surmounted by a drum containing a clock, with side-wall sundials and a colonnaded cupola topped by a ball finial. The outer bays each contain a tall sash window with glazing bars and a small six-pane casement above, both set within round-arched panels beneath a continuous impost band to the archivolts. A mutule cornice runs along the elevation. Bays 4 and 12 rise as towers, each with a blind balustrade beneath a six-pane sash, and a cornice leading to hipped roofs with central stacks. Balustrades link the towers with the portico. The main roof is hipped with ridge and end stacks.

The quadrangle contains many doorways with original panelled doors set in architraves with pulvinated friezes and cornices. Ground-floor openings are set within round-arched panels. Piers retain tethering rings and lead downpipes with griffin emblems.

The rear range extends for 15 bays. The central seven bays are two-storey, while the outer bays are single-storey. The central bay is pedimented and partly rusticated, breaking forward, as do bays 5 and 11. A central doorway with fanlight and archivolt with console-shaped keystone dominates this section. Flanking ground-floor bays originally had large round-arched carriage entrances, now glazed. A band beneath three iron lanterns runs across the elevation. First-floor windows are six-pane sashes in architraves. A modillioned cornice tops the two-storey section. The innermost single-storey bays have doorways; other bays contain sashes with glazing bars. A moulded cornice with blocking course completes this range.

The side ranges also extend for 15 bays. Partly rusticated central bays break forward and rise as hipped-roof towers. Other bays are single-storey. Bays 4 and 12 break forward and have pediments. Principal bays are otherwise occupied by round-arched sashes with glazing bars. An archway passes through the central bay of the western side.

The riding school to the rear is a tall single-storey block lit by lunettes set beneath the eaves.

The front range remains the least altered, retaining feeding racks in round-arched niches. Stalls have been removed and the disposition of upper-floor rooms remains unchanged. Other ranges have been converted for current use, with the riding school forming a gymnasium.