Stable Block

TL 66 NE CHIPPENHAM CHIPPENHAM PARK

6/64 Stable Block 1.12.51 (formerly listed as Stabling and Barn at Chippenham Park) GV II*

Stable block, late C17, built by Edward Russell (b.1653-d.1727) later Lord Orford. Small local red/brown bricks with lighter red bricks in jambs of openings and quoins, and light red gauged bricks to window and door arches and band at first floor and attic floors. Steeply pitched, hipped roofs with C19 slate. Symmetrical plan, carriage way through central block of two storeys with clock tower flanked by two wings of seven 'bays' each terminated by blocks of one storey with attics and two 'bays'. Central block has coach house on either side of arch, four sixteen-paned hung sash windows with original muff glass at first floor and triangular pediment with two round windows each with original leaded lights. Wooden, lead lined clock tower, square plan with clock face in each elevation surmounted on an open arched bell canopy with deeply moulded cornice and ogee-shaped leaded roof with weather vane. Three bells chime the hour. The clock, housed on the attic floor is dated '1793 Fra Perigal, Bond Street, London' and replaces earlier clock. Fenestration of wings and end blocks altered in C19 when stables were converted to offices and workshops. Each wing has three gabled dormer windows and casement windows in reduced original openings. Blind windows with round windows survive in end blocks. Lead water cistern to left hand dated 1769, carved brick dated 1767. Attached barn to east C19 re-using C17 brick in its construction with C19 brick lacing courses; roof of six bays plain tiled and hipped; wall to north earlier, possibly C17. The house was visited by Ceilia Fiennes in 1698 and the clock tower is graphically described in her journal.

Estate Map of Lord Orfords Estate 1712, C.R.O. Barber R W. History of Chippenham, pp.25-30, 1897 Morris C. The Illustrated Journeys of Ceilia Fiennes, p.140-1, 1982 Pevsner. Buildings in England, p.322 O.S. Maps, 1885, 1903

Listing NGR: TL6647969438