Bedford House

Details

NEWMARKET

TL6463 BURY ROAD 177-1/0/2 (Northwest side) 30-OCT-06 7 Bedford House

GV II Racehorse trainer's house adjoining Bedford House Stables, Bury Road, [qv]. Probably c.1850 for the seventh Duke of Bedford; major alterations and additions including former billiard room c.1884 by W.C. and A.S.Manning; further alterations c.1894 by Herbert Green for Captain J.O.Machell, racehorse manager. Gault brick with red brick and stone details, flint, hipped slate roof, gault brick stacks.
PLAN: double depth block backing onto the south west side of the main stable yard of Bedford House Stables; later C19 wing to rear.
EXTERIOR: two storeys; the entrance front facing road four windows wide; on the ground floor a single storey porch with flat leaded roof supported by Doric columns and cornice shields doorway with rectangular fanlight and four-panel door, to left of porch two sashes, to right one sash, and on the first floor four sashes, all with glazing bars. On the garden front facing south west, a large, single storey, semi-circular bay window to right lit by five curved sashes with glazing bars.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
HISTORY: Bedford House and Stables (formerly also including Bedford Cottage, now Rockfield House) were originally within the same small estate as Bedford Lodge (now Bedford Lodge Hotel, q.v.) which itself was built circa 1820 for the sixth Duke of Bedford as his Newmarket residence. It appears that the seventh Duke built Bedford House and Stables, for the stables are considered noteworthy and described in Thomas Knightley's Stable Architecture, published in 1862. After the Duke's death in 1861 the whole estate was purchased by Sir Joseph Hawley, who sold it on to the Duke's former trainer, William Butler. Butler demolished Bedford Lodge's original stabling and sold the Lodge to Joe Dawson who built the main range of stables adjoining it (now Highfield Stables, q.v.) in 1864. At about the same time he appears to have sold Bedford House and Stables to Captain J.O. Machell (1837-1902). He was originally an impecunious army officer and sportsman who settled in Newmarket, developed his interest in horse racing, and thereafter greatly improved his fortune by successful betting. He became a figure of considerable importance in the development of horseracing in the second half of the C19 and was racing manager to many of the principal racehorse owners of the period. His own horses won the Grand National three times. He employed excellent trainers in the yard, most notably Joseph Cannon and J.Jewitt, who sucessively occupied the enlarged Bedford Cottage. Machell (having also bought Bedford Lodge and Stables in 1880!) retired in 1892, and Bedford House, Bedford House Stables, and Bedford Cottage, were sold to the racehorse owner and breeder, Colonel Henry McCalmont.
REFERENCE: Knightley, T: Stable Architecture: 1862; Onslow, R: Headquarters, a History of Newmarket and its Racing: Cambridge: 1983: 99-111; Brown C, Birkin H, Kindred R: Dictionary of Architects of Suffolk Buildings: Ipswich: 1991-: 115, 142).

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

505820

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Onslow, R, Headquarters: A History of Newmarket and its Racing, (1983), 99-111
Brown, , Kindred, , Dictionary of Architects of Suffolk Buildings 1800-1914, (1991), 115,142
Knightley, T, Stable Architecture, (1862)

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