Catmose Cottage and the Rutland County Museum (formerly the riding school of the Rutland Fencible Cavalry Regiment)

Summary

A military riding school with attached accommodation and stable block of 1794-1795, and a 19th century rear wing of two phases.

Reasons for Designation

Catmose Cottage and the Rutland County Museum, built in 1794-1795 as the Rutland Fencible Cavalry Regiment’s riding school and accommodation, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* Catmose Cottage is a handsome building in the domestic Regency style;
* military riding schools are an unusual building type and this is a rare surviving example from the late-C18;
* the span of the roof of the riding school achieved with the large Baltic pine trusses remains an impressive construction feat.

Historic interest:

* the buildings are evidence of a time when the country was under threat of invasion from the French Republic.

Group value:

* the buildings share group value with Catmose, the late-C18 country house (now council offices) across the road.

History

The Rutland County Museum and Register Office buildings have their origins as a riding school built in 1794-1795 for the Rutland Fencible Cavalry Regiment. Both the regiment and riding school were established by a local Member of Parliament, Sir Gerard Noel Edwards (1759-1838), in response to the French Republic’s 1793 declaration of war on Great Britain. As first built, the complex consisted of the riding school building with adjoining stables and a house known as Catmose Cottage, which was at first accommodation for officers. The cavalry regiment was disbanded in 1810, when Catmose Cottage was privately let. The stables and riding school were subsequently used by the Leicestershire Yeomanry. During the First World War, the riding school was used to house the carriages of the Belgian Royal Family.

Gerard Noel Edwards was heavily involved with the establishment of the Rutland Agricultural Society, which arranged the Rutland County Show. The society’s first show of 1831 was held in the riding school as the large covered area made it an ideal space for hosting such events. In the 1860s the Rutland Agricultural Society built their new exhibition hall (the Poultry Hall, excluded from the listing) against the rear of the riding school. By the time of the publication of the 1904 Ordnance Survey (OS) map the Poultry Hall had been extended to the north. A range providing further accommodation had been added to the rear of Catmose Cottage and the riding school prior to the surveying of the 1886 OS map, and this range had been further extended by time of the 1904 map, with these two phases reflected in the half brick, half stone composition of this range.

In the late 1930s the stable block underwent extensive alterations through conversion to offices for the Oakham Urban District Council. Catmose Cottage remained a private dwelling, and the Poultry Hall became a transport depot and garage. During the Second World War, the parts of the Poultry Hall and its extension adjoining the riding school were destroyed in an accidental fire, with these sections later rebuilt in a courtyard arrangement. Later in the mid-C20, the southernmost bay of the riding school was demolished to facilitate the conversion of parts of Catmose Cottage and its later rear range into flats.

In 1966 the riding school was leased by the Noel family to Rutland County Council for use as a museum. Following works to accommodate the change of use, the riding school opened as the new Rutland County Museum in 1969, with the museum soon extending into the Poultry Hall.

Catmose Cottage remained in private use as flats until they were purchased by Leicestershire County Council in the early 1990s, and it became a Register Office in 1992. In 1997 ownership of the whole site was transferred to the newly incorporated Rutland District Council. In 2025 the museum occupies the riding school, Poultry Hall, much of the stables, and the northern part of the rear range to Catmose Cottage, with the southern part of this rear range and Catmose Cottage itself used by the Register Office.

Details

Military riding school with attached accommodation and stable block of 1794-1795, and a C19 rear wing of two phases.

MATERIALS: the riding school, stable block and Catmose Cottage have walls in squared blocks of local iron-rich stone, laid in courses of differing heights, with large quoins to the corners of Catmose Cottage. The stable block has limestone dressings to openings. The rear range to Catmose Cottage has a brick and a stone section, both sections have limestone dressings. Roofs are slate.

PLAN: the riding school is rectangular, orientated with its narrow ends to the north and south. It is of four adjoining elements: the stable block (museum) to the north, the riding school (museum) centrally, Catmose Cottage to the south.

STABLE BLOCK (MUSEUM)

EXTERIOR: single-storey with four chimneys; a weather-vane is attached at the north end of the eastern roof’s ridge. Windows are Crittal-style metal dating the building’s conversion for use as council offices in the late 1930s, with arched heads under segmental arch lintels in surrounds of ashlar blocking and stone cills.

The east elevation to Catmos Street has three large-pitched roof dormers through the eaves, one of the dormers is an addition dating to the late 1930s. The central and northern bays have a ground floor window in line beneath the dormers, the southern bay a single doorway, in a similar surround to the windows. The northern bay is wider than the others, extending further to the north.

The north elevation shows the ‘M’ profile roof’s gable end. At ground-floor level is a single doorway to the east, then an early-C21 double doorway (on the site of the original entrance) under a porch. There are three windows to the ground floor beneath the western roof, set close together so that the stones of their surrounds touch. At first floor under the eastern roof are two windows, off centre to the west, and under the western roof is a central single window. A string course runs from just above eaves level, rising and falling over the heads of the upper windows.

The west elevation has three bays, each with a pitched dormer similar to the east elevation, with the central dormer dating to the late-1930s. The ground floor has a window to each bay, though the northern window is off-centre.

INTERIOR: the ground floor has been opened up into a large reception and display area in the west. Some elements of internal walls remain, defining a stair hall, study and library to the east of the building. A suspended ceiling was inserted in the C20. The first floor is office and storage space.

RIDING SCHOOL (MUSEUM)

EXTERIOR: single-storey with a gable projecting from the centre of the eastern roof slope to Catmos Street. Windows are round-headed under segmental arch keystone lintels and with stone cills.

The principal, east elevation to Catmos Street is in three bays. The northern bay has a single window. The central bay has a C20 double doorway beneath the apex of the gable above, the gable has stone coping and a finial at its apex, and is fitted with a weather-vane bearing the Noel family coat of arms. Within the gable is a centrally placed ogee-arch headed niche. The southern bay has two windows, the northern of which has been shortened from a full height opening. The south elevation is solid brickwork.

INTERIOR: the hall of the riding school is one large space, open to the double pitched roof showing the original, Baltic pine roof trusses. These triangular trusses are formed of a tie beam spanning the entire hall from east to west, supported by later-C20 brick piers. The trusses have a central kingpost meeting the valley of the ‘M’ profile roof, with a crown post either side to support the ridges. A 1960s mezzanine gallery spans the north and west sides of the building, allowing first-floor access to the rear range of Catmose Cottage from the south end of the western gallery, and to the stable block from the northern gallery. There are blocked brick archways from the stables to the school, and out from the school to the west. At the south-west corner a late-C19 brick wall partitions off a corridor allowing ground-floor access to Catmose Cottage’s rear range; this wall truncates the trusses of the two southern bays.

CATMOSE COTTAGE

EXTERIOR: two storeys under a rectangular pitched roof with a gable end to the east and hip to the west. The truncated end of the ‘M’ shaped roof extends from the north slope of the main roof. A single, central, gable projects south from the south slope. A two-storey semi-circular bay under a flat roof is further west below the roof hip. Windows are typically six-over-six sashes under flat keystone arches with stone or concrete lintels. There are four brick chimney stacks.

The main elevation faces south to South Street. It is symmetrical in three bays, the central bay projecting slightly from, and taller than those to its sides. At ground-floor level the central bay has a single door within a recessed panel that originally had an arched top, but now has a horizontal lintel supporting a first-floor C20 canted-bay oriel window with one-over-one sashes. The central bay is topped by the gable end of the roof extending from the south roof slope. The gable contains a blank circular stone plaque and is separated from the storeys below by a string course. Both the flanking bays have two six-over-six sash windows to each floor, with the upper windows being taller than the lower.

The east elevation to Catmos Street is in three bays within the gable end of the main roof. To the north of the three bays, and slightly set back from the street line, are the remains of the demolished south end of the riding school. The southern of the three bays is solid, and the northern has a six-over-six sash to each floor. The central bay is spanned by a round keystone arch, sprung from the eaves level of the formerly adjoining riding school, this level being marked by a drip mould. Above the arch is a plain, circular stone plaque. Below the arch the central bay is recessed from the side bays, and has a central eight-over-eight window to its ground floor and six-over-six sash to the first floor.

The north elevation shows scattered C20 openings in the ‘M’ shape gable end. To the west elevation is the two-storey semi-circular bay; this has a projecting canted-bay window centrally at ground-floor level, and a six-over-six sash at first floor level. North of the bay is a small porch built at an angle spanning the west elevation of Catmose Cottage with the south elevation of its later rear range.

INTERIOR: the interior was converted for office use in the C20. There is little in the way of original joinery remaining, and a few simple Classical style fire surrounds to the first floor. The ground-floor room filling the curved bay to the west of the building contains a niche with an arched moulding over shelves and cupboards, and coffered panelling to the base of the bay. The staircase is located centrally in the building, and is an open string straight flight with a pair of slim barley twist banisters to each tread.

REAR RANGE TO CATMOSE COTTAGE

EXTERIOR: a rectangular two-storey range under a pitched roof with gables to north and south. It is in two sections; brick to the north and stone to the south. Windows are asymmetrically arranged due to later additions, but all mullioned and under lintels with slight lugs. This range has been much altered in the C20, with rebuilding in stretcher bond brickwork and new openings under concrete lintels.

INTERIOR: now mostly in use as offices and a café all with C20 finishes. There are some late-C19 fireplaces and coffered panelling to the first floor.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

186546

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Clough, T H McK, The Riding School of the Rutland Fencible Cavalry in Rutland Record, Vol. 15, (1995), 213-227

Other
Ordnance Survey map 1:2500, 1st ed 1886
Ordnance Survey map 1:2500, 2nd ed 1904
Leicestershire and Rutland Historic Environment Record Ref. MLE18226: Rutland County Museum, 2, 2A and 2B Catmos Street (West side), Oakham

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