Drawings 165 to 167 show the executed design for the stables. The building's back wall covers one side of the existing octagonal walled garden, its layout determined by this feature. The arched entrance is between coach houses and attached to the side ranges by curving screens, similar to the stables at Tendring Hall (q.v.). The entrance leads into the stable yard to face a door framed by stone dressings salvaged from the old house (as noted on the drawing). A survey elevation of the old house (drawing 3) shows the dressings surrounding the building's east entrance and consisting of an Ionic portico surmounted by a scrolled pediment, as in the elvation on drawing 167.

The floor plan includes a 'loose stable', an increasingly popular inclusion in stables design in the nineteenth century but 'by no means standard' in the late 18th century (G. Worsley, p. 186). Soane included loose boxes in his stables designs at Mulgrave Castle, Shotesham, Lees Court and Tendring Hall (q.v.). The building also features round-headed windows in the crowns of the arched recesses, a feature promoted by 18th century agricultural improvement for its optimal ventillation and lighting qualities.

The stables and stone dressings still stand today, though the interiors have been rebuilt as flats.

G. Worsley, The British Stable, 2004, pp. 185-8.

Group

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