Dovecote and attached stable to rear (east) of 10 Northgate

Dovecote and stable, probably mid-C18 with later alterations.

MATERIALS: mainly earth-mortared chalk rising from a limestone plinth; partial rebuilding in thin, red C18 brickwork with later blockings in poorer quality C19 brickwork. Pantile roof to the stable, the dovecote was roofless at the time of survey.

PLAN: the dovecote is an undivided, two-storey rectangular cell. The stable is a single undivided loose-box, both being accessed from the north. The small lean-to to the west gable of the stable is accessed from the west.

DESCRIPTION: the dovecote is a vernacular structure. The tops of the gables are eroded, but suggest the roof was steeply pitched. It has a simple, timber-lined doorway through the north wall adjacent to the west gable. An inserted, blocked cart entrance is adjacent to the east gable in the south wall. Set high in each gable there is a window with a projecting sill, an internal splay and timber lintels retaining evidence of vertical bars. The windows have been blocked with C19 brickwork and the bars removed.

Internally the dovecote has nest boxes built into both north and south walls with fairly regular rows of roughly square openings set directly above continuous string courses (forming alighting ledges), the boxes being L shaped internally. The lowest rows of boxes are set about 1m above the original floor surface. The nest boxes of the north wall (nearly 100) are constructed from chalk blocks. The nest boxes in the south wall are more regularly built in brickwork and are slightly more closely spaced with about 100 surviving, some being lost with the insertion of the cart entrance. The west gable is plain walled with no evidence that it had nest boxes. The east gable, largely rebuilt in chalk from a C18 brick plinth, only retains nest boxes to either side of this rebuilding: chalk-built ones to the north and rather irregular brick-built ones incorporating chalk ledges to the south. The roof structure has been lost except for two tie beams.

The stable abuts the west gable of the dovecote and is also built from chalk blocks rising from a limestone plinth. The ridgeline of its steeply-pitched roof is set immediately below the gable window to the dovecote. The stable includes some C18 brickwork repairs to the corner and around the single opening, the timber doorway. Internally the roof structure is a modern replacement, but the stable retains a couple of built-in storage alcoves, two metal hay feeders and a water/feed trough.

The lean-to is irregularly built of chalk and brick with a low-pitched pantile roof.