Description

STETCHWORTH

170/0/10002 Stud farm buildings at Egerton Stud
09-SEP-03

GV II
Stud farm buildings. Central domestic accommodation around which are set out various stabling ranges and the covering yard. 1891-3. For Lord Ellesmere.
Row of 2 houses for stud groom and manager. Brick with plain tile half-hipped roof and ridge stacks. Timber framed central gable. Two storeys.
Front facing main yard has 5-window range in all at first floor: 3 3-light wooden mullion and transom windows, the upper lights with glazing bars, with single-light windows in between. Doors below on ground floor with similar 3-light windows to ends and central 5-light canted bay. Similar doors and windows to rear.
Stables have weatherboarded walls on brick plinths with pantile roofs with ornamental ridge tiles. Single storey ranges. To either side of houses are 2 L-plan ranges which project forwards and are for mares and foals. These have windows alternating with stable doors and in the eastern block nearest the houses are 6 foaling boxes. To the south-west is the range of stallion boxes in similar style and materials. These have fully boarded interiors with corner mangers and in part the original padding. To north east of the houses are two ranges of stabling for mares in similar style for mares to be housed ready for vet attention so that the main yard could continue to be cleaned out (the central late C20 clock tower block is not of special architectural interest). To north west of the houses is the range of four stallion show boxes with gables facing and boarded interiors with corner mangers. Further to north-west is the covering yard also in similar style with weather-boarded sides, pantile roof and boarded interior, the roof structure strengthened late C20.
HISTORY. Egerton Stud is a very important example of a combined stud and racing stables and it also has important historical significance for its close connection with the Royal Family. The stud was rebuilt in 1891-3 for Lord Ellesmere as a lavish training establishment. In 1890 Lord Ellesmere's land agent proposed the conversion of Egerton House stud into the most modern training establishment in the country funded by the stud fees of the stallion Hampton. Before the remodelling Egerton had been a stud establishment and the development did not sacrifice this side so that the resulting establishment combined both stud farm and racing stables the two parts being set slightly apart. The agent approached the prominent trainer Richard (Dick) Marsh (trainer to the Duke of Hamilton at nearby Lordship Farm since 1876) to see whether he was interested in tenanting such a property. Marsh moved in November 1892 with 54 horses. The owners included the Dukes of Hamilton and Devonshire. Marsh was offered the chance to train the Prince of Wales's horses and 8 arrived at the beginning of 1893. Two of the most famous horses to be trained at Egerton were the Prince's Persimmon, which won the Derby in 1896, and Diamond Jubilee, the triple crown winner of 1900. Royal horses continued to be trained at Egerton, under Marsh and his successor Willie Jarvis, until Jarvis's death in 1943, a total of half a century.

This carefully designed and laid out stud farm remains little altered and the buildings were illustrated in the July 1895 edition of Racing Illustrated where they are referred to as the Egerton House Stud. These buildings form an integral element of this very significant establishment, a rare combination of stud farm and racehorse training stables, and are all part of the group with Egerton House (q.v.), Stable Block to Egerton Stud (q.v.) and Lodge to Egerton Stud (q.v.).
REFERENCES.
Racing Illustrated, No.5, July 1895.
Onslow, R., Headquarters: A History of Newmarket and its Racing, 1983, p.195-9.
Thompson, L., Newmarket from James I to the Present Day, 2000, pp.240-1, 251, 291-2.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670112

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

• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)