Description

WATTON-AT-STONE WOODHALL PARK
TL 31 NW
4/210 The Stables
24.11.66 (formerly listed as
Former Stable Block)
- II

Large stable block to Woodhall Park (q.v.), converted to 3 dwellings,
offices and garages. 1777-82 probably by T. Leverton for Sir T. Rumbold.
Converted 1857 by D. Braddell for Abel Smith. Yellow stock brick with
stone, timber and cement rendered dressings. Hipped slate roof.
Neo-classical style. Quadrangular block with central yard. 2 storeys.
Principal elevation to drive is 1:3:1:3:1 with central pseudo-Triumphal
Arch and end bays projecting slightly. Entrance arch is rendered with
rusticated voussoirs, Doric order with pilasters framing empty niches
and blank panels. Cornice serves as impost band to arch. Rusticated
quoins, blind oculi and a modillioned pediment above. Surmounting this
arch is a large clock tower. Square base, 2 faces with clocks, 2 with
blind panels, rebated and panelled quadrant angles. Cornice steps up
segmentally over each face. Domical leaded cupola, finial with golden
ball and weathervane. Inside entrance arch is a groin vault, sides have
blind openings, C20 2 light casements, stone band to upper lunettes.
Flanking arch 3 bays to each side have C20 glazing bar sashes, recessed
with gauged brick flat arched heads, stone sills, probably following
original blank openings. Stone plinth and plat band to smaller first
floor with margin glazed 2 light casements. Modillion eaves cornice.
Rainwater heads with date of conversion. Projecting end bays have brick
quoins, ground floor sashes, that to left in an architrave, large
relieving arches with inserted pseudo-Diocletian windows. Ridge stacks.
A hip on roof to left return which is now garden elevation of house,
1:3:3:3:1 with projecting centre and ends. Central brick arch,
rusticated quoins and voussoirs, flanking niches and stone panels,
oculi in spandrels, pediment. Double flight of steps up to inserted
French windows with architrave and an upper lunette. Flanking bays
have 6:9 pane sashes and 2 light casements as on entrance front. Outer
bays have architraved sashes and pseudo-Diocletian windows. Right
return from entrance elevation is plainer and leads to office wing.
Similarly disposed 1:2:3:2:1 without a central arch, outer of central
bays project with quoining, niches, panels, continuous stone band.
Cornice with modillions only on end bays. Projecting end bays with
relieving arches, oculi, quoining. Dummy and blind openings with tiny
oculi at heads, inserted entrances and 2 light casements. To rear a 3
bay wing to house, quoining and a 1 storey C20 tetrastyle loggia. Inside
stable yard: rear of entrance elevation, keyblocked arch with blind
niches and inserted windows. Cornice and pediment. Flanking relieving
arches on ground floor with C20 openings. First floor margin glazed 2
light casements. Rear of house wing to right was extended out in 1957 to
form an asymmetrical elevation. Entrance with Doric portico, 6 panelled
architraved door, ground floor relieving arches and sashes. Stone band
to first floor with oculi and 2 light casements. Inner elevation of
office wing has 2:4:2 elevation with centre bays projecting slightly.
Ground floor relieving arches, depressed to centre garage doors except
to 2 right bays. First floor oculi in outer central bays, otherwise 2
light margin glazed casements. To rear linking house and office wing a
depressed arch over iron gates, surmounted by an C18 urn, flanking
niches with 2 bays of blind openings to right in relieving arches.
Interior not inspected. Mounting block inside yard. The stable block is
on the site of the Tudor/Elizabethan house which was destroyed by a fire
in 1771. A long avenue leads up to the entrance arch. (Country Life,
14/5/59: Pevsner 1977).

Listing NGR: TL3176218499

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26282688

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)