Stables At Longleat House

HORNINGSHAM LONGLEAT PARK (north side)

ST 84 SW 2/138

Stables at Longleat House

11.9.68

GV

I

Stable block, now offices and exhibition space. 1800-02 by Jeffry Wyatville for 2nd Marquess of Bath. Limestone ashlar, Welsh slate hipped roofs, ashlar stacks. Enclosed square courtyard, entrances on south, north and east sides, 2-storey corner towers to single-storey ranges. Elizabethan-style to conform with main house. Main entrance on south side; central entrance with cast-iron gates and gates piers, either side is cross window flanked by Doric pilasters, cross window and segmental-headed recessed blind panel to sides with projecting towers; two cross windows and Doric pilasters and entablature, first floors have two cross windows with Ionic pilasters and entablature to blocking course with scrolled decoration, all windows with moulded architraves. Attached to right is curved colonnade to covered walkway. East side has 5-bay blocks, formerly laundry and coachman's house, with cross windows, with additional 2-bay block on north, now part of estate office, central entrance leading to gardens and to curved walled drive. North side, formerly carriage house, retains most of five segmental-headed double studded doors either side of entry to courtyard, half-round yard to north enclosed by Flemish bond brick walls containing stone horse troughs and with flanking 'lodges', now toilet blocks. West side, formerly stable, has central 2- storey clock tower with tripartite sashes and blocking course with shaped parapet, cupola with gilded clock face and weathervane and ogee fishscale shingled roof, either side of tower are sashes or cross windows. Inner-facing facades of ranges have studded doorways, cross windows and some blind bays, carriage-ways on east sides of north and south ranges, west side has central blocked segmental arch with inserted doorway, below clock tower. Interior: Main stable blocks on west and south sides; retain cast-iron and timber stalls and loose boxes made by Musgraves of Belfast, herringbone tiled floors, corniced ceilings. Farrier's workshop preserved as exhibition, in west corner of south range. Grooms' accommodation formerly in corner towers. Designed and built when Wyatville was employed to improve Longleat House (q.v.) and provide additional buildings in the park, Humphry Repton was involved in the siting of the stables in their landscaped setting at Longleat. N. Pevsner recorded C18 statues by Claud David, on the roof, but not extant at time of survey (June 1985). (Longleat Red Book by Repton and original plans in Longleat Archives)

Listing NGR: ST8078043044

This entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 8th July 2016.