Sefton Lodge Stables And Trainers Cottage

Racehorse training stables and adjoining trainer's office and flat located near Sefton Lodge on Bury Road. Built circa 1872, probably by William Young for C.J. Lefevre, a racehorse owner, in a style similar to but plainer than the Lodge itself. Additional stable ranges were added in 1905 by Thomas Henry Smith for S.B. Joel, a diamond magnate and racehorse owner.

The buildings are constructed of gault brick with red brick dressings, featuring gabled slate roofs with barge boards, a timber clock turret, and brick stacks. Cast iron roof ventilators include a turret-pattern example on the ridge and a row of smaller plain vents at the rear.

The layout comprises a narrow stable yard entered through a wide opening on the south-west side. On the north-east side stands a range of stables with cage loose boxes on the ground floor and stable lads' accommodation in the loft. At the north-west end and south-west side are single-storey ranges for tack and feed rooms. At the south-east end of the yard is the trainer's cottage.

The main stable range is two storeys with two sections. The longer left section features a central gabled projecting bay with clasping pilasters on the corners linked across the front by a red brick segmental arch rising into the gable. The timber clock turret crowns the gable apex with a pyramidal roof supported on brackets and carries a wrought iron wind vane topped by a figure of a racehorse and jockey. The ground floor displays a doorway with stone lintel, horizontal sliding sashes in the fanlight, and a ledge-and-braced timber door. Either side of the projecting bay are similar doorways flanked by sashes with vertical glazing bars under red brick relieving arches. The upper floor contains a later casement with glazing bars and further casements with glazing bars above the doorways. The single-storey ranges facing the yard have similar doorways, doors, and sashes. At the rear, each loose box has a hopper vent window, with a loading door and various casements with glazing bars on the first floor.

Inside the stable range, the ground floor features a row of cage loose boxes entered from a brick-paved passageway. Each box has a timber front fitted with an iron grille of vertical rods, and timber partitions between boxes are lined with hoop-iron straps. Above the box fronts is a screen of closely-set turned wooden balusters, a rare decorative feature in 19th-century Newmarket stables.

The trainer's cottage presents a two-storey main front facing south-east with three cross-gabled bays. The projecting central bay has a decorative brick band at first-floor level. Attached to the right is a recessed two-storey tower with hipped roof and a single-storey lean-to adjoining. The left-hand bay against the central bay contains the entrance doorway with fanlight. The ground floor features three-light and two-light mullion and transom casements in the bays under stone lintels, with similar two-light casements on the first floor, and red brick relieving arches above. The tower has similar mullion and transom casements on the ground floor and first floor, with stone lintels and red brick relieving arches above the upper casements.

Together with Sefton Lodge, these buildings represent the best example of a 19th-century horse racing establishment in Newmarket designed to accommodate and train only the horses belonging to the resident owner.