Stables, Coach Houses And Service Buildings To North And East Of Courtyard At Ripley Castle With South Wall To Gate House

Stables, coach-houses and service buildings, now used as storerooms and shops, located to the north and east of the courtyard at Ripley Castle, with a crenellated south wall connecting to the gate house.

These buildings were begun in 1786 by architect William Belwood for Sir John Ingilby. They are constructed in coursed squared gritstone with grey slate roofs and are designed in the Gothick style.

The north range is a long two-storey block of 15 bays, linked to the north-east service wing of the castle. The end bays and central 3 bays are canted and form squat crenellated towers. The central 3 bays project forward and feature paired six-panel board doors with cast-iron openwork panels set in four-centred arches with projecting surrounds. The central doors are surmounted by an ogee panel and shield. All windows have shallow pointed Gothick arches. The central window on the first floor is of four lights and is flanked by three-light windows with interlaced glazing bars and square hoodmoulds surmounted by cruciform recesses. A projecting first-floor band runs across both north and east ranges. The roof is hipped with a crenellated chimney stack to the left. The flanking ranges have Y-tracery windows to ground and first floors, several of which are blind. The left range has a six-panel pointed arched door to bay 4 and a blind recess to bay 6. The right range has a similar door to bay 2. Ground-floor windows have ventilators in the lower half. The outer towers have a door and window to the ground floor and a four-light intersecting tracery window with hoodmould above, plus two cruciform recesses below the eaves. Wooden gutter brackets are fitted throughout.

On the rear elevation, the central block rises to three storeys. A six-panel door is located to the left with two garage doors to the centre and right. There are four blind windows to the first and second floors, the upper row with segmental arches. The flanking ranges have a board door to the left, a blocked door to the right, and twelve- and sixteen-pane sashes. The two-bay tower attached to the castle has no crenellation on its rear face, and its walling is a continuation of the castle's rear wall. Projecting eaves bands and stone gutter brackets are present.

The east range features central double gates under a pointed arch with crenellated parapet. The ground floor has pointed openings, two to each tower, of which one is blind. The left tower has a Y-tracery window to the other opening, and the right tower has an inserted glazed door. The left linking range has alternating blind and traceried openings. All first-floor windows are blind, painted with Y-tracery. The tower windows are larger and have hoodmoulds. Central towers have clockfaces below their crenellated parapets.

On the rear of the east range, the towers are linked by lean-to cart-sheds (now shops) to the left and botheys or byres (now café and shops) to the right. The south tower contains an inserted cast-iron header tank supported on internal buttresses. A crenellated linking wall, approximately three metres high, connects the south tower to the gate house, with a short similar section extending eastwards from the tower.

Although construction was begun in 1786, an estate plan of 1807 does not show the southern half of the eastern range, suggesting this section may have been completed later. The structure was noted as unstable at the time of resurvey, and the interior was not inspected.