Stable And Service Ranges 100 Metres West Of Wollaton Hall

Stable and service ranges, now used as an industrial museum, gallery, shop and offices, located 100 metres west of Wollaton Hall. The complex comprises two main ranges constructed at different periods: the southern range built in 1743 and the northern range built around 1774, with a single-storey Riding School added around 1829. Further alterations were made by Sir Jeffry Wyatville around 1830, and the buildings were altered and extended during the 20th century. The structures are built of sandstone ashlar and red brick with ashlar dressings, beneath gabled and hipped roofs of graduated Westmoreland slate and plain clay tile.

The complex is arranged around three courtyards, two of which form quadrangles and the third serving as a cart and implement yard. The southern range presents a formal front to the south-east.

The 1743 stable range features a south-east elevation of 13 bays in ashlar. The ground floor has rusticated stonework with an ashlar plinth, whilst the first floor includes an ashlar band, cornice and ashlar parapet. Round-arched windows with raised keystones light the ground floor. The first floor windows have shouldered architraves and retain 18th-century sashes, though ground floor joinery dates from the 19th century and includes some infilling with ashlar slabs from 1830. The central three bays project forward and contain an engaged Ionic portico with a triangular pediment. The tympanum displays an elaborate Rococo composition incorporating the carved coat-of-arms of the Willoughby family, featuring figures of a monk and Hercules, a central cartouche surmounted by a baronet's coronet. Above this sits a clock face with carved Rococo ornament and an 18th-century dial in an enriched surround. The central round-arched entrance has a raised keystone and is topped by a fanlight with a pair of panelled doors reinforced by a cast-iron outer frame with three panels inset with cast-iron strapwork (1830). Beneath the arch, a matching cast-iron strapwork panelled pair of doors opens to the courtyard elevation. The doorway is flanked by niches with arched windows above.

The west and east elevations of the 1743 range are each nine bays wide, built in brick with a raised brick parapet, stone cornice, plinth, raised rusticated quoins and stone dressings, beneath graduated Westmoreland slate roofs. The west elevation has regular fenestration with flat-headed windows, the first floor windows having shouldered architraves, mostly 18th-century joinery including blind windows. The east elevation is similar, featuring three doors with overlights and mid to late 19th-century glazing bar sashes.

The south courtyard elevation features continuous dentilled eaves banding, brick ridge stacks and plain tiled roofs above a sandstone plinth. The first floor has regular fenestration with segment-arched openings containing a mixture of 18th-century leaded-light casements, 19th and 20th-century sashes and casements. The west side includes a brick porch with dentilled eaves band and hipped lead roof, a six-panel door with overlight and fanlight. The south side has blind windows at ground floor, two decorative lead rainwater pipes and hoppers dated 1743. The north side contains a central round-arched carriage arch with three carriage stores to the right, each with paired panelled doors.

The 1774 service range is two storeys high, constructed in brick with a stone cornice and brick parapet. Its east elevation features a central round-arched doorway with an ashlar Gibbs surround, flanked by segment-arched windows and doors on each floor. A two-storey end pavilion has a stone cornice, hipped roof with lead finial, and two openings per floor.

The middle service courtyard is roofed throughout with graduated Westmoreland slate. The ranges to the north and east date to around 1774, whilst that to the west dates to around 1829.

The Riding School on the west side of this courtyard is a single-storey range of circa 1829, built in brick with 20th-century timber casements. The central doorway has moulded brick rebates. The interior contains a series of timber king-post trusses. The east range is two storeys with a ground floor of wide six-panel stable doors with moulded brick surrounds and fanlights; the first floor has mainly timber casements and two brick stacks on the inner wall. A central archway and brick passage with round-arched rebated brick surround provides access. Two round-arched niches at low level contain tapped water supplies. The south side is two storeys plus basement, with a brick dentilled eaves band and brick plinth above a section of sloping wall with moulded brick coping. Behind this retaining wall, at basement level, is a series of low barrel-vaulted chambers, possibly dog-kennels or stores, which return into the east range with a single chamber; small oculi punctuate either side. The north side contains a former hay barn with three tiers of breathers on the north elevation and two segmental arched double panelled doors with rebated brick surrounds on the south elevation. A central round-arched carriage entrance gives access to the outer north courtyard.

Against the Riding School range on the west side stands a wooden cased lead water pump with two spouts, dated 1826 and inscribed with a motto and baronet's figurehead.

The north courtyard features, to the east, a range of implement stores beneath a continuous lean-to slate roof supported on brick piers. Behind this lies a walled botanical garden enclosed on all sides by a three-metre wall with moulded brick coping. On the west side of the outer courtyard stands a four-metre brick wall with gabled moulded brick coping and a continuous slate lean-to attached to the west. The north-east corner contains a cartshed and salt store in brick, with graduated slate and cement sheet roofing. To the north-west are detached double ranges of single-storey farm buildings with coped gables.

The interior of the 1743 ranges retains two matching 18th-century open stairwells with vase and stem balusters in three flights, some elements replaced, with moulded handrails. The boiler room contains two complete surviving stables and stalls of 1743 date. The south-east corner houses a 19th-century laundry with washtubs and coppers. The 1774 range includes a bakehouse with two ovens and a dairy equipped with in-situ cheese-making equipment, plus a separate tiled milk-separating dairy room with early 19th-century fittings. The first floor of the 1743 building retains mid-18th-century cornices, doors and architraves, and the south-west range incorporates panelled shutters.

A dovecote with brick nesting boxes, restored in 1985, is located within the square pavilions to the north-east of the 1774 range.