Ranges Of Horse Boxes In Main Yard, Childwick Bury Stud

Ranges of stables at Childwick Bury Stud date to around 1888 and were likely designed by Colonel R.W. Edis FRIBA for Sir John Blundell Maple, the stud’s founder. The stables form a ‘L’ shaped layout, encompassing north and east sides of the Main Yard, and comprise 34 numbered horse boxes, including four wider ones for foaling. The construction is primarily timber frame with weatherboarding on the front and tarred boards at the rear, built upon brick plinths. The roofs are covered in plain tiles, with hipped ends and patent ceramic ventilating ridge tiles. Each range features a taller, central cross gable. Each horse box has an original stable door with cast iron strap hinges, alongside a vertical slatted vent panel. The cross gables facing the yard have weatherboard cladding, bargeboards with scalloped and pierced decoration, and knopped apex finials. A clock is positioned in the cross gable of the north range. The projecting central box at the rear of the east range, constructed in brick, has projecting gable verges braced by a collar tie, supported at each end on shaped brackets. A large doorway with a segmental brick-arched head is central to the rear wall, with a small oculus with a side-hung sash window in the gable. Internally, the stables feature vertical board partitions partially covered with metal strapping, brick-paved floors laid to drains, and open roofs with queen post trusses. Each box contains two original corner mangers faced in vertical boarding and lined with zinc. The buildings are complete and unaltered examples of late 19th-century stables, forming part of a significant group of stud farm buildings facing the Main Yard, alongside the Stud House (formerly Childwick Hall), Stallion Boxes, Trophy Room, and Covering Yard.