Stable Block

This is a late 17th-century stable block, built by Edward Russell, later Lord Orford. It is constructed of small local red/brown bricks, with lighter red bricks used for the jambs of openings and quoins, and light red gauged bricks for window and door arches, a band at the first floor and attic levels. The steeply pitched, hipped roof is covered in 19th-century slate.

The stable block has a symmetrical plan, with a central two-storey block containing a carriage way, flanked by two wings of seven bays each. The wings are terminated by one-storey blocks with attics and two bays. The central block has a coach house on either side of an arch, and at the first floor it features four sixteen-paned sash windows with original muff glass, topped by a triangular pediment housing two round windows with original leaded lights. A wooden, lead-lined clock tower stands prominently above, with a clock face on each elevation, surmounted by an open arched bell canopy featuring a deeply moulded cornice and an ogee-shaped leaded roof with a weather vane. Three bells chime the hour. The clock, housed on the attic floor and dated 1793 from Fra Perigal, Bond Street, London, replaced an earlier clock.

The fenestration of the wings and end blocks was altered in the 19th century when the stables were converted into offices and workshops. Each wing now has three gabled dormer windows and casement windows in reduced original openings. Blind windows with round windows survive in the end blocks. A lead water cistern is located to the left, dated 1769, and a carved brick is dated 1767.

An attached barn to the east, constructed in the 19th century, incorporates earlier 17th-century brick within its construction, alongside 19th-century brick lacing courses. The barn has a plain tiled and hipped roof over six bays. A north wall is of earlier, possibly 17th-century, origin. The house and clock tower were documented by Celia Fiennes in 1698, her description of the clock tower being particularly graphic.