Blue Idol stable

Blue Idol Stable

A small timber-framed detached stable of the later 17th century, standing in the western garden of the Blue Idol meeting house. The building is constructed on a 20th-century plinth with timber frame, brick and render infill, timber weatherboarding, and a clay-tile roof; the internal panels are wattle and daub.

The stable is orientated east to west and is formed of two bays. It was laid out with an upper floor loft with spaces connected by a central doorway, above a low ground floor used for animals. The building does not appear to have been heated.

The principal elevations face south and east, where the timber frame is exposed and infilled with white-painted brick or render. The upper section of the frame is straight-braced. Fenestration consists of small windows with restored plain diamond mullions, set high under the eaves, with one in each bay of the southern elevation. A late-20th-century timber door serves the western bay, and an added window is located at the corner of the eastern bay. The eastern elevation displays exposed small framing similar to the adjacent meeting house and has a single high-set mullion window with replaced mullions. The clay-tiled roof is steep and hipped, with a small gablet to the east and a straight gable to the west. The north and west elevations are clad in black timber weatherboarding. A modern pedestrian entrance is positioned to the south.

The interior reveals an exposed timber frame and roof. There are pairs of principal posts to each bay, six posts in total, each with long, slightly swelling jowls shouldered to carry connecting timber components at dropped tie beam and wall plate height. The north-western post is notably more substantial, heavily weathered, and contains void mortices suggesting it has been reused or repositioned. Three low-set tie beams are present; those in the end walls have empty joist mortices, providing evidence that the building was formerly floored. The central truss supports framed partitioning above and below, constructed as one piece with the main posts and bearing matching carpenters' marks. The upper framing is constructed with an interrupted tie beam flanking a central doorway, with remains of wattle and daub panels to either side. Below, the framing has an offset door opening. The lower partitioning is heavily stained and scarred, with empty peg-holes and a groove running along its top surface, evidencing wear by animals and likely fixings for former stalls and feeding troughs. Throughout the frame are a number of unused mortices suggesting timber reuse, and two sequences of carpenters' marks indicating modification. The roof is constructed partly with 20th-century timber. It has a single tier of clasped side-purlins supported by collars and the central partition. Most rafters are replaced and there is no ridge-board. The floor is concrete.