Stables To The North Of Endsleigh House

SX 37 NE 9/219 6.10.82

MILTON ABBOT ENDSLEIGH Stables to the north of Endsleigh House

GI Stables.Designed in circa 1810 by Sir Jeffrey Wyatville for the 6th Duke of Bedford.Stone rubble brought to course with hipped slate roofs.Approximately U-plan,built against the slope of the land to the north and consisting of three ranges round a pitched stone courtyard.The south range faces Endsleigh House(qv)across a forecourt.One storey and attics.Deep eaves,casement windows with timber mullions and transoms in chamfered stone openings,the doorway and window to the grooms'accommodation have segmental arches with keystone.Full dormers with hipped roofs.The south side of the south range is symmetrical with a plinth and a massive central coach entrance under a separate hipped roof carried on chamfered stone cheeks with a chamfered lintel with mason's mitres.Timber spandrels with Gothic cusping form a triangular arch on the north and south sides of the coach entrance.A clock turret on the ridge has louvred sides,four diagonally-set clock faces and a hipped slate roof crowned by a weathervane.The south side of the range has six large entrances.The west range has one entrance with windows on either side.The east range,partly used for accommodation has diagonally set chimney shafts and two entrances.On the east side it is built into the slope of the land at the north allowing direct access to the first floor.A two-bay gabled projection at the south end has a half-hipped roof.On the north side of the courtyard,opposite the coach entrance is a fountain set in a round-headed alcove in a tall battered stone surround terminating in a cornice.A stone trough is set in front of the alcove,and above the alcove is an inscription panel:"Endsleigh Cottage was built and a residence created in this sequestered valley by John Duke of Bedford the spot having been previously chosen from the natural and picturesque beauties which surround it by Georgiana,Duchess of Bedford.The first stone of the building was laid by her four eldest sons Wriothesley Edward,Charles, James Fox and ... September 7 1810"(parts illegible).Hussey suggests that the Duchess of Bedford was the driving force behind the creation of Endsleigh House.Christopher Hussey,Country Life,CXXX, 246;CXXX, 296.

Listing NGR: SX3910278633