Stable Block At Nevill Holt Hall Preparatory School

A stable block, now used as classrooms, workshops, a gym, and a swimming pool, was built in the late 17th century, with subsequent additions and alterations in the 18th and 19th centuries. The building is constructed of coursed rubble stone with quoins and stone dressings, and has a Collyweston slate hipped roof with four moulded stone ridge stacks. It features a plinth and a battlemented parapet. A large central clock turret is prominent.

The stable block is arranged around a quadrangle, with carriage entrances in the middle of each side, with one entrance on the left side open and between two blocks. The front facade, designed for pedestrian access, has eight 3-light stone mullion windows with leaded lights on the first floor. Six similar windows are on the ground floor, with 2-light windows set into a wider, blocked frame on the far left and right. Centrally, there are doorways to the left and right, each with a moulded stone frame, a 4-centred arch, a keystone, and a hood mould. Above the doorways is a panel with pilaster strips on either side and a wider central strip featuring a carved cartouche. A moulded cornice runs along the top. A front ashlar section, pedimented and central, features a moulded stone doorway with a 4-centred arch, a keystone, and a hood mould. Pilasters with stopped flutes are positioned to either side. Above this is a semicircular pediment and a central cartouche, topped by a further pediment with a moulded cornice and a projecting panel, continued by the battlements.

The 18th-century clock turret rises from the roof ridge above this central section. The turret has a leaded and moulded base with a small 1-light window. Above the ridge level is a square turret with moulded corner pilasters, a projecting cornice, and clock faces to the front and right. An open octagonal lantern sits above, complete with a diamond-pattern balustrade and a leaded octagonal ogee roof topped with a weathervane. At the left and right ends are further 3-light stone mullion windows with leaded lights and hood moulds. On the right end is a probable 19th-century ashlar central gabled section with a carriage archway. It features a segmental 4-centred arch with a hood mould, a blank tablet above, and continuing battlements over the gable. A rainwater head is dated 1805. The building is documented in Pevsner and the Victoria County History, Volume V.