Stable Block (30 Yards South Of Wherwell Priory)

Stable Block (30 yards south of Wherwell Priory)

This is a Grade I listed building, formerly an abbey building, probably the refectory to Wherwell Abbey, now used for garages, stores, workshops and similar purposes.

The building probably dates to the second quarter of the 13th century, with alterations made in the 17th, 18th, late 19th and 20th centuries. It is constructed of banded flint and brick with some chalk blocks, with brick dressings and a plain tile roof.

The exterior consists of a large open hall structure originally, with a loft floor inserted in the 19th century. The building contains 8 roof bays, with a late 19th-century single-storey 3-bay brick extension at the right end and a 20th-century brick outshut at the left end. The walls feature brick quoins and cambered openings, with windows fitted with diamond-leaded wood-framed lights and doorways with board doors and cover strips. A late 20th-century garage door is located at the left end. Three gabled dormers are positioned along the front elevation.

The rear elevation displays 17th or 18th-century brick quoins and a buttress at the right end, 2-light windows and sashes at the left end, two loading hatches, and 2 gabled dormers. A blind oculus is located in the left gable.

The interior contains 19th-century stalls. Wooden corbels project halfway up the walls, supporting jowelled vertical posts and straight braces that rise to the tie-beam. Tie-beams support queen-posts with collars and slightly arched braces to clasped through purlins. Passing braces rise from the tie-beam to the collar, face-halved to queen posts. Collared rafters have wedges at the base between rafter feet and wall plate, and also at the junction of rafters and purlins where the rafters are scarf-jointed (the principal rafters are unjointed). Wall plates have trait de Jupiter joints. Collars and passing braces have notched lap joints. Some carpenters' marks are visible. The timbers are smoke-blackened, more heavily so at the centre. The 2 left-hand bays were reconstructed in the 17th century and are unsooted, featuring a queen strut truss with a lower tier of staggered butt purlins, an upper tier of clasped through purlins on collar, and straight wind-braces.

The Benedictine abbey was founded around 986. From 1226 to 1257 it was ruled by Abbess Euphemia, a prodigious builder, who is likely to have been responsible for the construction of this building given its probable date.