Riding School And Stable Courtyard, Waldershare Park

The Riding School and Stable Courtyard at Waldershare Park, dated 1871, is constructed of yellow brick with red brick dressings and features slate roofs. The large riding school faces an open stable courtyard, which includes secondary side courts with cottages and storehouses, all showcasing finely detailed polychrome brickwork.

The riding school consists of a single large storey built on a plinth, with eight offset buttresses along one side and a moulded cornice that rises to a central gable on a hipped roof. To the right, there is a recessed and gabled wing with an end stack. The windows are gauged, polychrome, pointed arches set in sunk and crenellated panels, with five windows on either side of the central carriage doors, which have a single window above.

Inside, the projecting end bay originally served as an observation gallery, accessed through boarded doors on the end elevation. The main space of the building has a timber roof reinforced by iron struts and wire restraints, with a chalk floor and walls that were originally wainscotted.

The stable courtyard features a central two-storey block with a timber-framed gable topped by a finial or spirelet. This block is made of brick on the outer face, flanked by two projecting gabled storehouses on either side, along with single-storey wings that project towards the riding school. The entire structure is unified by a continuous plinth and banded string courses highlighted in red brick. The outer elevation has five panelled buttresses on either side of the main entrance, which displays the date 1871 on the flanking buttresses, and features large iron ventilators in the roof, along with two-storey gabled end blocks.

The symmetry of the composition is somewhat disrupted by the irregular subsidiary courtyards on the return wings, which include a single-storey gabled range and cobbled courtyards that were once domestic in use. Some stable fittings and gas meters remain. This building is part of a larger complex that includes kennels, a machine house, and former gas works that are no longer extant.