Stable Block With Groom's Cottage, Belchester

Stable Block With Groom's Cottage, Belchester

This complex of farm buildings dates from 1743, with substantial rebuilding in the early 19th century and later alterations and additions. It comprises an irregular-plan stable court with several interconnected structures surrounding a courtyard.

The principal stable block is a near-symmetrical, two-storey, seven-bay classical building constructed in squared and snecked tooled cream sandstone on its front elevation, with sandstone ashlar dressings (some droved). The rear is faced in harl-pointed whinstone and sandstone rubble with droved cream rubble dressings. The front elevation features a raised base course, quoin strips, and raised margins, with squat upper openings and projecting cills. The rear has rubble quoins and long and short rubble surrounds to openings.

The south-west (entrance) elevation contains a slightly advanced central bay with a basket-arched carriage pend at ground level. Above this is a tripartite window at first floor with narrow sidelights, surmounted by a pedimented gablehead. Within this gablehead sits a square-plan dovecot featuring a round-arched, tripartite niche with regularly-spaced pigeon holes and an iron weather-vane. Either side of the centre are three-bay ranges, each recessed. The left range has boarded timber stable doors at ground level, with boarded windows above. The outer left bay is slightly advanced and contains boarded timber doors in a basket-arched carriage opening at ground, with a tripartite window above. The right range mirrors this arrangement.

The north-east (rear) elevation contains a basket-arched carriage pend at ground with a small single window above. A modern exterior stair serves a two-leaf boarded timber door at first floor. To the left, a gabled bay has a single storey store adjoined at ground with a timber door at first floor. A blocked window sits to the right of the entrance pend, with a single window at first floor in the next bay. A projecting single storey block is adjoined to the outer right.

The south-east (side) elevation has a boarded window centred at ground, with an architraved sandstone plaque above and a single window breaking the eaves above. A mono-pitched store is adjoined to the right. The north-west (side) elevation has a single window centred at first floor, with a boarded window at ground in an adjoined single storey block to the left.

The stable block is roofed in grey slate with brick apex and wallhead stacks at the rear and a circular can. Windows throughout are small-pane glazing in timber sash and case or fixed windows, with a small skylight.

The groom's cottage is a single-storey, near square-plan structure adjoining the court. It is faced in harl-pointed rubble with tooled sandstone dressings, tooled quoins, and tooled long and short surrounds to openings. The south-west (entrance) elevation has a single window centred in a projecting porch with a timber panelled door on return to the right and bipartite windows in flanking bays. The north-west side elevation is blank to the cottage itself, with mono-pitched stores recessed at the outer left and right. The north-east (rear) elevation is also blind to the cottage, with a mono-pitched store recessed to the outer left and a rubble wall adjoined to the right. The cottage has 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows (missing in part), and is roofed in grey slate with tall brick wallhead stacks and circular cans.

A single storey, mono-pitched range encloses the courtyard to the south-east, adjoining the groom's cottage. The courtyard to the north-west is enclosed by a single storey, near square-plan block. To the north-east, a single storey, four-bay, rectangular-plan ancillary structure encloses the court. This is constructed in squared and snecked tooled cream sandstone rubble with droved long and short sandstone dressings. Its south-west (courtyard) elevation has boarded timber doors with three-pane fanlights in bays flanking the centre and one to the outer right, with a lower, part-glazed boarded timber door to the outer left. The north-east (rear) elevation is blind. The north-west (side) elevation has a boarded timber hatch in the bay to the left. A coped rubble wall encloses the courtyard to the right. The structure is roofed in grey slate with a small skylight.

The forecourt is defined by a pair of square-plan gatepiers flanking the drive, constructed in coursed cream sandstone with corniced square caps and a modern gate.

The interior of the stable block was not inspected at the time of survey in 1998.