Coach House, Ashridge

Coach House, Ashridge

Stables built around 1816–1817 to the designs of Jeffry Wyatville, now known as a former coach house. The building was converted into offices in the late 20th century.

The coach house is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond, showing evidence of considerable historic repair in plum-coloured brick. Some brickwork is earlier, possibly dating to the Tudor period. It has stone ashlar dressings and a slate roof covering.

The building has a long rectangular plan with cross wings at each end, aligned north-west to south-east, and is attached to a nag stable at the south-west corner. The coach house faces north-east into the stable court, which is located to the west of the house. An extension on the south-west side, dating to 1986–1987, does not have special interest and is not included in the listing.

The coach house has one and a half storeys and steeply pitched roofs with a crenellated parapet and stone string course at eaves level. The nine-bay façade is punctuated by projecting gabled bays in the middle and end bays, each with plain parapets with a moulded edge and surmounted by cross gable finials. The central bay contains a quatrefoil stone tablet bearing a shield, and the outer bays have a blind lancet window in the gable heads. The fenestration consists of four-light mullion and transom windows, arranged with two smaller lights above two longer ones, with depressed arch upper sections and diamond leaded lights. The second and eighth bays contain modern glazed and timber doors above which are two-light windows in the same style. The principal door in the central bay is similar except it has a recessed moulded stone surround with a dripmould. The different phasing of the brickwork around the apertures indicates that the windows and doors have been subject to alteration, involving the bricking up of former stable doors and the insertion of windows.

The north-west gable end contains a central doorway with a modern timber and glazed door with a four-light overlight and flanking four-light windows, the whole under a continuous dripmould. The south-east gable end has a bricked-up doorway and, at the upper level, a two-light window with a wide central mullion in a stone surround, inserted in the 20th century. The left half of this elevation is obscured by an early 21st-century glazed link.

Almost all of the rear elevation of the coach house is obscured by the 1980s extension. The rear slope of the roof, pierced by roof lights, is visible, and the gable end of the south-east cross wing rises just above the extension. This has a pair of gables decorated with applied timber framing infilled with herringbone brickwork.

The former nag stable is in a similar Tudor style to the coach house. It has a crenellated parapet along the principal five-bay, south-east elevation and a plain parapet at the north-west gable end with cross gable finials. Two chimney stacks with oversailing brick eaves rise from each slope at this gable end. The fenestration is the same as on the coach house, except that the windows in the second and fourth bays are of two lights. The central door has vertical studded fillets and is set within a depressed arch stone surround with a two-light overlight. The other elevations are mostly obscured by later 20th-century extensions, except for the left-hand side of the north-west (rear) elevation, in which a louvred door has been inserted.

The coach house and nag stable are attached via a brick wall with a depressed arch opening in a stone surround. This formed the south-west wall of the saddle room.

Internally, the coach house retains no historic fixtures or fittings relating to its former use as a stable. The interior has been remodelled to create an open-plan office space with modern finishes, and a steel and glass mezzanine has been inserted along the rear wall. The only element of interest is the series of three murals depicting agricultural life by Dora Carrington on the upper half of the north-west wall. The Queen post roof has been strengthened with metal plates riveted onto the timber. The south-west nag stable was not inspected but the louvred door for ventilation indicates that it has been converted to hold plant and equipment.