Machell Place Stables

Details

NEWMARKET

TL66SE OLD STATION ROAD 177-1/0/27 (South side) 30-OCT-06 Machell Place Stables

GV II Racehorse training stables. Formerly Chetwynd House Stables. Dated 1884 on tablet. By W.C.Manning, with features in a Northern Renaissance style, and built by Laurence and Sons, of London, for Charles [Charlie] Wood, racehorse trainer and former jockey, at a cost of 6,398 pounds, at rear of Machell Place, Bury Road, (q.v.), the trainer's house. Behind the main yard a short range of former stables now storage sheds, probably c.1850 for James [Jem] Robinson, jockey. Red brick, moulded terra cotta dressings, hipped, half-hipped, and gabled slate roofs with pierced ceramic ridge tiles, timber stable ventilators with pyramidal caps on the ridges, panelled brick stacks.
PLAN: symmetrical layout on a grand scale; a large rectangular yard enclosed by ranges on three sides and open on the fourth side towards the trainer's house. In the centre of the cross range an imposing gatehouse projecting into the yard, and on each side seven loose boxes with loft above. Each flanking range nine loose boxes and a row of six stalls within the end adjoining cross range; at the outer end of each flanking range a taller block facing onto the yard contains feed and tack rooms with staff accommodation above. Passage through gatehouse leads to a narrow service yard at rear with an earlier stable range, now storage sheds, built against the rear boundary wall of the yard.
EXTERIOR: cross range and cottages two storeys, flanking ranges single storey. The symmetrical front of the gatehouse in the cross range of two stages and three bays, the wide central bay flanked by narrow bays, and quadrant corners; on each stage the bays defined by applied pilasters with bases and moulded caps supporting deep entablatures, the entablature to the upper stage with pulvinated frieze. In the lower stage a doorway with elliptical arched head and with a pair of vertical boarded and partly glazed doors, and in the bay on each side an arched sash. In the upper stage in the central bay a framed rectangular plaque with horse's head carved in high relief, the date 1884 and the monogram CW; in each side bay a recessed window in the form of a horse shoe in a moulded frame. Above the upper stage a Flemish gable faced with scrolls on each side and moulded terra cotta diaper, and pilasters framing a central, recessed clock face, and supporting an entablature and pediment enclosing a semi-circular arch, and on the apex a wind vane. On the front of the range to each side of gatehouse strip pilasters defining each loose box bay are linked by brick dentil bands at first floor level; to each loose box a doorway with moulded segmental arched head and vertical boarded stable door and transom-hinged fanlight with glazing bars; the loft storey is set back slightly with each bay defined by pilasters linked by brick dentil eaves bands; in every second bay a double casement with glazing bars crowned alternately with a straight or shaped coped gablet. Each flanking range on the front has doorways to loose boxes with stable doors, and a doorway to each set of stalls, each doorway flanked by sashes with glazing bars, and all with details similar to front of the cross range. In rear wall each box has a hopper sash with segmental arched head. The front and rear of each cottage symmetrical, with offset plinths, brick dentil eaves cornices and half-hipped roofs; on the front a central doorway flanked by sashes, and on the first floor a wide recessed panel between two sashes flanked by narrow recessed panels; on the rear on the first floor two large, recessed blank panels.
INTERIOR: loose boxes with internal connecting doors in breeze block partitions lined with vertical boarding protected by hoop iron strapping, concrete floors overlaid with brick-on-edge herring bone paving, full width slate mangers, gas brackets enclosed in iron cases.
HISTORY: the stables were renamed Machell Place in late C19 after they were bought by Captain J.O.Machell, prominent racehorse owner and manager.
These grand and extensive stables form a significant group with the trainer's house (q.v.).
REFERENCE: The Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes: The Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire, and W.G.Craven: Racing and Steeple Chasing: London: 1889-: 108-110 (incl. plan and elevation).

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

505823

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Craven, W G, Racing and Steeple Chasing, (1889), 108-110
The Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes in The Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire, ()

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