Stables, Ashley House

Probably designed by William Burn in the earlier 19th century, these stables and kennel blocks form a two-storey, U-plan arrangement built into a sloping southern ground. The construction is of stugged, squared, and snecked sandstone with ashlar dressings, featuring chamfered reveals, crowstepped gables, dormerheads, Tudor hoodmoulds, and quoins. A squat entrance tower is centrally positioned and linked to flanking, advanced rectangular blocks by link walls, creating a U-plan around a central cobbled courtyard.

The north (entrance) elevation has a cart entrance leading to the courtyard, flanked by ashlar piers with conical caps and connected to gable ends of the wings by a link wall with pedestrian doors. Windows are located at ground and first floor levels within the gables. The east elevation is symmetrical, with a central gabled bay featuring a Tudor arched doorway, a four-panelled door, associated hoodmould, and a shield above the door. A bipartite window sits above the door, also under a hoodmould. A blind arrowslit is located in the gablehead, topped by a finial. Flanking bays are regular, with windows at ground level and dormerheads at the first floor, although these windows are now blocked.

The west elevation incorporates a cottage range with three window bays grouped towards the centre, accompanied by doors to the left and right. The door on the left has a boarded design with a four-pane fanlight, while the door on the right is modern. A rubble boundary wall with semi-circular coping surrounds the area in front of the house, with steps leading up to the entrance door.

The south elevation presents an advanced tower centred above a raised basement, marked by a string course. A bipartite window is located at the principal floor, flanked by blind arrowslits with roundels symmetrically disposed below. Steps connect the inner courtyard to the right and left of the tower. Flanking gable ends of the left and right blocks have windows symmetrically disposed at ground and first floor levels, with the right-hand windows being blind. A small penned area sits in the northeast corner, enclosed by a rubble wall with semi-circular coping. A walled garden extends to the south, with walls also enclosing areas to the east and west.

The courtyard elevations feature a central tower with a Tudor cart arch, a modern two-leaf chevron-boarded door, a keystone bearing the date 1824 (?), a rosette above, and flanking arrowslits. A corbelled parapet of blind arcading with corner ball-finialled dies is present, rising to a steep, crowstepped gabled roof. A triangular finial features in the gablehead. The flanking blocks display a two-leaf sliding door at ground level in the west elevation, a dormerhead with a three-pane glazed upper portion and boarded lower section, and a hoist door above. The east elevation has a two-leaf sliding door to the outer right, a window to the left, and symmetrically placed dormerheaded windows to the outer left and right.

The windows are primarily four-pane sash and case, some 12-pane sash and case, and a casement window is found in the rear gable of the east block. The roof is covered with grey slate, featuring diamond-aligned ridge and wallhead stacks on shouldered pedestals.