Abington Place And Abington Place Stables

Abington Place and Abington Place Stables

Racehorse training stables and trainer's house in Newmarket, dating to 1889. The complex encloses the main stable yard, with a further stable and feed range to the north-east and a former blacksmith's shed. Possibly designed by John Flatman of Newmarket for Martin Gurry, racehorse trainer. The name derives from the "nom de course" used by George Alexander Baird, the eccentric gentleman jockey and owner whose payment of a large debt to Gurry enabled the construction of these stables.

The buildings are built in red brick in the Domestic Revival style, dominated by a tall clock turret on the north-east range. The stables have hipped and gabled slate roofs with tiled hips on the house; some roof slates have been renewed. Boxed eaves are present throughout, with metal ridge vents to the single-storey ranges of loose boxes. The house features tall brick stacks with cornices. The complex has experienced minor additions and alterations to the trainer's house around 1920 for Alfred Saddler, racehorse trainer, and further additions on the garden side of the house around 1985.

The Plan

A large rectangular yard is enclosed by single-storey ranges of loose boxes on the south-west and north-west sides. The north-east side contains a range of loose boxes with hayloft above. The south-east side contains a range of tack rooms with staff flat above on its northern half, with the trainer's house facing the southern half. The yard is entered from a drive through a gateway between the end of the south-west stable range and the trainer's house. A central cross passage in the north-east range leads to a range of filly stables, feed house, and blacksmith's shed.

The Trainer's House

The house is of double depth with a service wing to the left on the front facing into the yard. It comprises two storeys and a cellar, with a string course at first floor level. The asymmetrical front facing the yard features a slightly projecting block to the right with a central doorway flanked to the right by a single-storey canted bay window with sashes, and to the left a pair of sashes. On the first floor are a tall central sash, a sash to the right, and two sashes to the left, all in openings with segmental-arched heads. The sashes in the centre and to the left have glazing bars in the upper frames and central vertical bars in all other frames. In the wing to the left, the ground floor has two pairs of sashes and the first floor has two sashes. The entrance front at the south-west end of the main block features a remodelled porch and doorway to the left, and to the right a large two-storey canted bay window with casements in timber frames with upper mullions. The south-east front has two similar bay windows and to the right a late 20th-century single-storey extension.

The Exterior of the Stables

On the south-west side of the yard is a range of six loose boxes with a garage at the left-hand end. The north-west side contains fifteen loose boxes. Each box in both ranges has a doorway with a stable door and overlight with a pair of vertical glazing bars. The front of the two-storey north-east range is symmetrical, with four loose boxes on each side of a central semi-circular archway to the cross-passage. The archway contains vertical board double doors with glazed panels with glazing bars in the quadrant heads. Each loose box on both sides has a doorway with stable doors and overlights similar to those in other ranges, set in openings with segmental-arched heads. In the loft storey, the centre contains a double casement with glazing bars (4 by 3 panes) rising into the central gable, and each side is centred with a double casement with glazing bars (4 by 2 panes). The central cross-gabled roof features a large, elaborately shaped stone-coped gable with stone kneelers, supporting a square turret with an offset stone plinth. Each face of the turret is framed by pilasters with moulded bases and capitals, moulded frieze, and bracketed eaves. The front of the turret displays a clock face. The turret's hipped roof is covered in fish-scale slate and crowned by a timber octagonal cupola with louvred sides and a leaded ogee cap. On the apex of the cap is a cast metal finial supporting a wind vane surmounted by a figure of a racehorse and jockey, bearing the date 1889.

The south-east range is of two storeys. On the ground floor of the northern half are two doorways to the left leading to feed and tack rooms, a central doorway, and a doorway and tall archway to the right leading to a small service yard, with two sashes on each side of the central doorway. The second floor has seven sashes. All openings have segmental-arched heads with projecting stone sills to the windows. The outer walls of the south-west and north-west stable ranges are plain. The outer wall of the north-east range has a stone-coped gable to the central cross-gabled roof, with a central semi-circular-arched doorway on the ground floor to the cross passage. On the first floor are a central loft doorway and similar loft doorways to each side with gablets above. All stable ranges at ground storey level have quadrant corners.

The Interior of the Stables

The stables are mainly loose boxes except for a small set of caged boxes in the south-west corner. The loose boxes have vertical iron strapping and balustrading with turned balusters at the top of the partition walls. An office with full-height vertical boarding and a fireplace is located in the north-west corner. In the north-east corner of the two-storey section is what is probably original machinery for feed grinding and shredding. There is a hoist inside one of the loft doors looking onto the service yard.

The archway under the clocktower leads to the service yard, with the range of filly stables and feed house to the left and the blacksmith's shed to the right.

Filly Stables and Feed House

This is a single-storey structure with three openings and two doorways to the feed store and the ten loose boxes beyond, which have stable doors with overlights and small, partly-rebuilt, yards in front. A row of vents appears on the roof apex.

Blacksmith's Shed

This single-storey rectangular structure has a hipped roof with various doorways and windows.

This is a fine and very complete example of a purpose-built integrated trainer's house and racing stables constructed for a notable professional trainer. Most of the materials and labour used were brought from Nottingham, Gurry's native city. The complex forms a group with the entrance gateway and gates.