Stables At Apley Castle

A late 18th-century stable complex incorporating the substantial remains of an early to mid-14th-century manor house that was extended and remodelled in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The building is constructed of squared and coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings.

The original early to mid-14th-century house was built on a U-plan with a central hall flanked by a service wing to the left and a solar wing with chapel to the right. During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the flanking wings were extended to the rear. In the late 18th century, when the building was converted to stables, a south range was built across the rear to enclose a central courtyard, and the existing late 16th and early 17th-century extensions were reduced in height.

The north elevation displays an early to mid-14th-century chamfered pointed-arched doorway to the left of the central hall range, with a late 16th and early 17th-century inserted square-headed window (blocked) to the right. The remains of the slightly projecting former service wing sit to the left, while to the right stands the projecting former chapel with a blocked early to mid-14th-century chamfered pointed-arched window, later converted into a doorway, positioned above a blocked late 16th and early 17th-century square-headed doorway. The former solar wing features a late 16th and early 17th-century chamfered stone-mullioned four-light window inserted above a 14th-century one-light window to the former undercroft.

The west elevation includes a two-storey, two-window range to the medieval solar wing with similar late 16th and early 17th-century mullioned and transomed three-light windows to the ground floor and smaller square-headed first-floor windows with chamfered architraves. A late 16th and early 17th-century extension to the right, reduced to one-storey, contains a three-window range with similar three and five-light windows flanking a late 18th-century segmental-arched doorway, with a late 18th-century three-light mullioned and transomed window to the right.

The east elevation, reduced to one-storey, displays a four-window range with similar two and three-light windows flanking a central early 19th-century elliptical-arched entry. The south elevation, built in the late 18th century, features a 2:3:2 fenestration pattern with slightly projecting outer bays and an impost band linking semi-circular arched recesses.

The interior retains significant medieval features. The former open hall contains two chamfered pointed-arched service doors to the east; the north door is distinguished by unique bas-relief flagons serving as chamfer stops, while the south door (probably later) has quirk and tongue stops. A late 16th and early 17th-century square-headed fireplace was inserted to the west, with a 14th-century splayed jamb remaining from a dais window blocked by the insertion of the chimney stack.

The former first-floor chapel preserves a 14th-century one-light pointed-arched north window with splayed east jamb, which was later converted into a doorway. The south wall contains an early to mid-14th-century ogee-headed piscina with a chamfered rere-arch to an early to mid-14th-century two-light ogee-headed window set in a splayed recess with chamfered mullion and rebated architrave. A square-headed doorway (probably late 16th and early 17th-century) was inserted into a 14th-century squint at the west end. The west wall has a blocked pointed-arched window adjoining a blocked Caernarvon-arched window, which probably lit a former spiral stair, and blocked square-headed early to mid-14th-century doorways to the ground floor.

The late 18th-century west wall of the courtyard was rebuilt in the 1980s. Four semi-circular arched coach-house doorways in the north wall of the courtyard stand on the approximate line of the south wall of the medieval hall. A six-horse stable to the south-east features cast-iron finials and newels to early 19th-century stalls.

The early to mid-14th-century house was probably built soon after Alan de Charleton received licence to crenellate in 1327. The late 16th and early 17th-century work was carried out for Andrew Charlton and his son Francis. The building was converted to stables in 1792–1794 when their new country house at Apley Castle (now demolished) was constructed.