Old Riding School

This is an 1890s indoor riding school, later adapted as a cattle shed, situated in Withyham. Designed in the Arts and Crafts style by Percy Ginham, who had previously worked as Chief Clerk to Richard Norman Shaw (the architect of the nearby ‘Leyswood’ house in 1869). The building is constructed of brown brick in stretcher bond, with a hipped slate roof. It features a distinctive composition: a central riding school flanked by stabling ranges. The front elevation has a central, gabled 5-light dormer which forms part of the clerestory to the riding school, and a central, cambered arched entrance for horses. There are four square brick buttresses. The stabling range extends to either side, with a slightly lower sloping roofline. The side elevations have six gabled 3-light dormers creating a clerestory for the riding school, and a lower sloping roof to the stabling. The building also has eight fixed casement windows and nine doors. The interior is lit by the clerestory, and the roof is supported by a complex system of iron trusses, with a boarded ceiling. Later partitions and remnants of feeding units – relating to the building's adaptation as a cattle shed – are not considered to be of particular historic interest.