Former Stables And Arched Wall Attaching It To The Old Coach House

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679/0/10309 WAKEFIELD ROAD 24-MAY-05 Lightcliffe Former stables and arched wall attachi ng it to the old coach house

II Stable range with linking walls. c.1775. Probably built soon after the rebuilding of Cliffe House which it serves.Brick with some ashlar dressings. Slate roofs. PLAN: STABLE range facing ontop courtyard, and connected by a SCREEN WALL WITH ARCH, with north end of yard being closed by FLANKING WALLS with broad gateway. EXTERIOR: FRONT (east) ELEVATION: Two storey, hipped slate roof, with central doorway wirh small flanking windows contained within arched, bar-entrance like surround. To either side pairs of round-headed windows flank plain doors. To first floor three small semi-circular lights to centre, flanked to either side by round-headed loading doors, and with further small semi-circular light to each end.Wooden window frames and doors probably C19 replacements. END (north) ELEVATION:small square window to first floor. INTERIOR: Ground floor with intact loose boxes with wrought iron colums and with central staircase to first floor. First floor divided into three rooms with exposed roof trusses. SCREEN WALL:Lower part of brick, rising in centre to form double-height arched opening. This linked to corner eaves of coachhouse and stable range to either side by plain ashlar pediments supported on either side of the arch by two tapering, square-sectioned stone columns. FLANKING WALLS: of brick, c.2.5m high, dropping in quarter-round shape to meet stone gateposts defining a broad entrance. SECONDARY YARD: beyond the entrance defined by the flanking walls is a second, slip-like yard, closed at its west end by a single-storey brick building extending northward from the stables. Freestanding outbuildings are mapped at, and just beyond, the east end of the yard (no details available) HISTORY: Cliffe Hill, the adjoining mansion, is believed to have been built in 1775. The stables and coach house complex are of similar date, and are more than purely functional: they were intended to impress, as were the modest, park-like grounds in which the house was set, and were designed in a fashionable Neo-classical manner with a particularly unusual screen wall. The stable range and attached enclosure walls form a group with the former coach house, now dwelling (q.v.) which faces the stable across the courtyard.