Stableblock at Illston Grange

Details

ILLSTON ON THE HILL

1050/0/10003 BURTON OVERY ROAD 10-MAY-07 STABLEBLOCK AT ILLSTON GRANGE

II Stableblock including cottage to now demolished large hunting box. Built c.1860 for the Baillie family.

EXTERIOR: Red brick with stone dressings. Swithland slate roofs, pantile to inner slopes, with coped gables. Triple-gabled rectangular plan of stables with lofts over either side a long 2-storey narrow covered court. High Victorian style. 2 storeys with small part single storey and tower rising 2 stages above in centre of the front which once faced the house but now faces gardens. Entrance front in narrower end of long rectangle has triple gables facing with round-arched stone doorway in centre with massive double panelled doors with ornamental hinges. Above is a circular window with cross mullions and in each of the side gables a 2-light mullioned window. To left at ground level is an arched kennel opening. The front facing the gardens is a 11-window range of single- and 2-light windows, mostly multipaned casements. To far end is a door with a tall window over, and a sash type window with a C20 window over. Above is a side stack. In the centre of this front is the tower with a pair arrow slits and, above, a gable on each side with a clock face to the front and louvred mullioned circular windows to the sides. In the rear gable is an unusual tall opening with brick louvres, possibly a former dovecote. The left side of the stableblock is 2-storey to right with a door and window over, 6 other mainly 2-light windows, another kennel opening to far right and 2 loft openings over. Gable end stack on left end. The single-storey part to left has 4 2-light windows and the roof is hipped to the left end over a C20 window which forms part of the cottage. This has windows in former arches in the 2 gables to left and the first floor has a circular mullioned window in the centre and a 2-light to left.

INTERIOR: The central narrow 2-storey covered court is very impressive and has a 10-bay open arched-braced roof, the braces springing from stone corbels. There are 2 tiers of purlins and the space above the collars of each truss is filled by a panel with 3 open roundels. From this court lead the stables which have heavy panelled and battened stable doors, tarred brick sides, corner troughs, setted floors and cast-iron window grilles between stables. Tack room has blocked fireplace, cupboard over and hooks for equipment. A large stable (converted to cowshed) has the elements of framing for stalls surviving and was perhaps used for mares in foal. A stair leads to the hay and other lofts between which at one end below the central window there is an open bridge linking the two sides of the blocks. This has a decorative panelled and openwork balustrade and could no doubt also be used for watching the horses below. Here there is also most of a hoist mechanism surviving. The lofts have king-post truss roofs.

HISTORY: Illston Grange was built c.1860 for the Baillie family also of Cally House, Gatehouse of Fleet. It was a large High Victorian style house and had this stableblock to one side. The house was demolished in 1927.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: This is a fine example of a hunting box stableblock, the area being of great importance for the Leicestershire foxhunting tradition. Built c.1860 in High Victorian style of red brick with stone dressings and Swithland slate roofs, it is on a triple-gabled rectangular plan of stables with lofts over either side a long 2-storey narrow covered court which has a 10-bay open arched-braced roof. From this court lead the stables which have heavy panelled and battened stable doors, tarred brick sides, corner troughs, setted floors and cast-iron window grilles between the individual stables.

The design is unusual in having the splendid covered court leading to the stables. This court may not only been a place to prepare the horses for hunting outside their individual stables, under cover, and for huntsmen to mount and dismount, but it may also have acted as a place for gentle exercise, or schooling, as it is long enough and just wide enough for a tight turn.

SOURCES: Giles Worsley, The British Stable, 2004, p.248 and passim. V.C.H., Leicestershire, Vol.4. Information from the owner.

Listing NGR: SP6957198754

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

496227

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Worsley, G, The British Stable: An Architectural and Social History, (2004), 248
Leicestershire in Leicestershire, Vol. 4, ()

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.