Summary
Coach house, stable yard and associated pair of cottages, mid-C19 to early C20 with late C20-early C21 alterations.
Reasons for Designation
The stable yard to Cowdray Park, comprising stable ranges, a coach house and a pair of associated cottages, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Form and intactness: a substantially intact estate stable yard with an attractive coach house entrance range and some surviving stalls
* Date: two stable ranges which are of early to mid C19 origin presumed to have been constructed to serve Cowdray Lodge after it became the family residence in the 1790s and subsequently enlarged and aggrandised in the late C19 as the Lodge was remodelled as the Victorian mansion Cowdray Park
* Group value: the stable yard buildings are located within the registered landscape of Cowdray Park (Grade II*), in close proximity to the fine Victorian mansion of Cowdray Park which it served. It also has group value with the kitchen garden and other historic estate buildings which are located to the immediate west and south of the stable yard
History
The coach house, stable yard and cottages are located to the south-east of the large Victorian mansion known as Cowdray Park. Cowdray Park was built in the 1870s. At its core is Cowdray Lodge, a former keeper's lodge which was occupied and remodelled by the seventh Viscount Montague's family in the late C18 following a serious fire which made the C16 Cowdray House uninhabitable.
The west and south ranges of the stable yard were originally built in the early to mid C19 as they are shown on the Easbourne Tithe map of c1847. They are presumed to have been constructed as stables serving Cowdray Lodge, inhabited by the family from the 1790s. (The adjacent kitchen garden was also built in the very late C18 or very early C19.) With the remodelling of the Lodge as Cowdray Park in the 1870s, improved stabling and associated facilities were required and the coach house date stone reads '1876' which would equate with this work. However, historic mapping suggests that the coach house and stable north range are later, built between 1897 and 1912 so there is conflicting evidence for date, although the 1870s would seem more likely. The pair of cottages, was built, on map evidence between 1897 and 1912. However, given the 1897 map is known to inaccurately depict the main house, it should be treated with caution as a dating source.
The south and west stable ranges were converted to garages in the late C20. The coach house interior has also been converted into flats.
Details
MATERIALS: stone, red brick and slate roofs.
PLAN: rectangular stable yard with stable ranges forming north, west and south sides and the coach house forming the east range. Pair of semi-detached cottages immediately adjacent to the south-west corner of the stable yard; cottages to the east and outbuildings and yards to the rear (west).
STABLE YARD: the stable yard is surrounded on its north, west and south sides by the stables or former stables, and on its east side by the coach house range. The stables are single storey brick buildings with hipped slate roofs which has louvered roof vents with decorative lead-work. The stables are largely in red brick Flemish Bond, but with some blue bricks used, also stone springers and key stones to the arches in the stable yard and an external south wall which is of several phases including some stone courses. The south and west ranges were converted to garages in the late C20 with some rebuilding of the brick walls and the insertion of large plank double-doors into the former openings. The north range is as built with its interior still in use for stabling. This has a stone pavier floor and retains its original timber and iron stalls. Some original windows and doors survive, particularly in the external elevations and the north range, and are multi-paned timber sashes and half-glazed doors all with red brick dressings.
COACH HOUSE: the coach house range is of two-and-a-half storeys with lower end bays of one-and-a-half storeys. It is stone-built with pitched slate roofs. The stonework is of a good quality with the blocks appearing to be graduated such that they are smaller at the gable than at ground level. The upper floors have roof dormers, those to the end bays are louvered, and there is a polygonal clock tower above the central carriage arch. This building was not inspected internally as it has largely been converted to flats. On the west gable of the central bay is a date stone '1876' under a drip mould.
COTTAGES 118 & 119: cottages 118 and 119 are semi-detached and are located immediately south-west of the stable yard. They are of two-and-a half storeys, stone built with red brick dressings and exaggerated chimneys and have pitched tiled roofs. Windows are timber casements. The cottages are not mirror images in plan. No 119 is entered from the south and 118 from the east; both have gabled porches. However, their outbuildings to the rear (west) are mirror images in plan. Although not inspected internally, sales particulars indicate that they are three-bedroom cottages each with a kitchen and sitting room on the ground floor.
SOURCES:
English Heritage, Register Entry for Cowdray House and Park, Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest, (1982)
Website of the Cowdray Heritage Trust including a Cowdray timeline at www.cowdray.org.uk [accessed 25 Oct 2010]
