Stable Court, Stable Cottages And Riding School At Thoresby Hall

Stable court, stable cottages and riding school at Thoresby Hall

A complex of stable buildings dating from 1865, designed by A. Salvin for the third Earl Manvers. The structures are built in plain and rockfaced ashlar and brick with graduated slate roofs, executed in the Elizabethan Revival style.

The main stable court comprises four ranges arranged around a square courtyard, with adjoining cottages and a riding school to the north. The buildings are predominantly two and three storeys, measuring seven to four bays wide and four unequal bays deep. Throughout, they feature a plinth, first floor band, rebated eaves, and shouldered coped gables with kneelers and ball finials. Windows are mullioned casements, some with hood moulds. The roofs carry eight side wall and five ridge stacks.

The buttressed east front is the most prominent elevation, dominated by a projecting central gabled porch with octagonal flanking turrets topped with pepperpot domes and finials. The central opening is a round-headed arch flanked by single lights. Above this are dormers of varying designs: to the left a central gabled dormer flanked by single large bracketed dormers with round-headed loading doors, and to the right a casement flanked by single lights, followed by a bracketed dormer and small gabled dormer. A projecting right gable contains a single casement on one level, two casements above, a central blank panel, and a round opening at the highest level.

The stable cottages adjoin to the north, extending four bays. On the east elevation, each storey has two doors flanked by single casements. The upper storey features four casements, with two gabled cross-eaves dormers above. The north gable has a casement on each floor.

The south front displays a central projecting wing with stepped shouldered double gable and end gables. Fenestration comprises off-centre paired casements with stepped heads, flanked by single doors with segmental heads and further single casements. Upper floors contain casements arranged asymmetrically.

The west front includes a projecting gable to the left and seventeen breathers, with a casement and four dormers distributed across the elevation. The north front is distinguished by two gabled wings and two hipped single-storey lean-to additions.

An adjoining head gardener's cottage and outbuildings, two storeys and five bays, feature a coped gable with kneelers and ground-floor openings with segmental heads. A single-bay two-storey addition to the west dates from the late 19th century.

The buttressed riding school adjoins, extending six bays with a coped gable with kneelers. A slated lean-to addition runs along the north side to the left, with a 20th-century barn door opening to the right. The interior contains chamfered brick segmental transverse arches and a principal rafter roof.

The courtyard itself is bounded by doorways with segmental heads. The east side features a chamfered central arch flanked by two casements and two doors, with a pair of latticed timber gates with ornamental ironwork filling the archway. On each side are two further doors, and above sits an off-centre gabled porch with ball finials, flanked by two dormers to the left and a single dormer to the right.

The south side of the courtyard has a central gable with segmental archway flanked by four pairs of round-headed carriage doors, with single doors beyond. Above, a central gable contains two casements, with small dormers at each end.

The west front toward the courtyard displays a central gabled bay with two casements, flanked by two doors and single casements.

The north side shows a central round-headed door with lamp bracket, flanked by four casements and two doors. Above are dormers: a central one flanked by two larger single dormers, with additional small dormers beyond.