Summary
Former Royal Artillery infirmary stables, built in 1874-75 to designs by Lieutenant General Charles Brisbane Ewart RE, Deputy Director of Works for Barracks at the War Office, extended and altered between 1899 and 1904, altered again in the late-C20. Now disused.
Reasons for Designation
The former infirmary stables at the Royal Artillery (Le Cateau) Barracks, Colchester, built in 1874-75 to designs by Lieutenant General Charles Brisbane Ewart RE, Deputy Director of Works for Barracks, with later alterations and extensions, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a rare surviving example of a late-C19 horse infirmary with a well-balanced composition and plan-form that still reflects its specialist function;
* it retains many fixtures relating to its original veterinary role, including a horse sling, cobble floors and tethering rings.
Historic interest:
* its survival contributes to our understanding of the advances in the development of equine veterinary medicine after the Crimean War.
Group value:
* it has a strong functional and historical relationship with several former barrack buildings dating from its original phase of construction. These include two barrack blocks, a sergeants’ mess, officers’ quarters, and a school room, all listed at Grade II. As a well-preserved group, they are of considerable importance as they reflect the reforms put in place after the Crimean War.
History
Colchester has a long-established history with the British Army. Troops, often on the way from London to the Continent via the Essex coast, were billeted in the town from the late C17, and a tented camp was established on Lexden Heath in 1741. In 1794, the tented camp and billeting were replaced with a permanent hutted camp on a four-acre site between Military Road and Mersea Road. By 1800 additional infantry, artillery, and cavalry barracks had been established on an adjoining 21-acre site, the whole bordered by Magdalen Street (later Barrack Street) to the north, Wimpole Lane to the west, and Port Lane to the east.
After the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15), the buildings, fixtures and fittings of the cavalry barracks were sold in 1818, while the sale of the older barracks and the freehold site on which they stood was completed in 1840. The infantry barracks however, for which the government paid £5,000 in 1818, continued in use, and by 1821 was the town’s only barracks. Although it was given up before 1836, it was leased again in 1856 as a temporary exercise ground. The government also retained Barrack Field, a 23-acre site to the south of the barracks, which had been bought for an exercise field in 1805, and Ordnance Field, a 32-acre site to the west, which had been purchased in 1806.
During the Crimean War (1853-56), a hutted camp, intended as a temporary infantry barracks for three battalions, was erected on Ordnance Field between 1855 and 1856. Known as Colchester Camp, it comprised six blocks of huts along with a canteen and a fives court for the officers. A prefabricated timber garrison chapel (listed Grade II*) was also included in the original provision along with laundry rooms and schoolrooms. By 1857 there was a large reading room and 48 small rooms for married soldiers.
After the Crimean War, when it was finally realised that the country could not do without a properly organised and trained standing army, Colchester Camp doubled in size with the construction of two permanent brick-built barracks. The earlier of the two, called simply ‘Cavalry Barracks’, was built between 1862 and 1864 on Butt Road to designs by Captain Douglas Galton RE, Assistant Inspector-General of Fortifications. Its layout followed that of the first permanent cavalry quarters at Aldershot (1856-59), with the barracks arranged in parallel rows with the officers’ stables, all disposed symmetrically about the communal space of the parade ground. The officers’ quarters formed an enclosed courtyard, with a double-height mess room in the centre of the long side. A riding school (listed Grade II) and a manège were also provided.
Shortly afterwards, between 1874-75, the Camp was further enlarged when a Royal Artillery Barracks was constructed on land immediately to the north-east of the Cavalry Barracks. Designed by Lieutenant General Charles Brisbane Ewart (1827-1903), who had been appointed Deputy Director of Works for Barracks in 1872, its layout also followed the Aldershot camp plan, it being the last barracks in Britain to adopt the layout. The provision included accommodation for two field officers and ten other officers, housed in the Officers’ Quarters (listed Grade II) at one end of the central parade ground, stabling for 186 horses in six stable blocks with quarters for 288 non-commissioned officers and men above, three on either side of the parade ground, of which only two now survive (listed Grade II), quarters for 32 married soldiers and their families in two blocks, one either side of the parade ground. Overall, this gave a total strength of 332 officers and men and 204 horses. A separate sergeants’ mess (listed Grade II) was also provided along with a schoolroom (listed Grade II), guard house, office block, latrines (separate blocks for men and women), skittle alley, meat and bread stores, an octagonal water tower with officer’s baths on the ground floor, coal yard, wash house, laundry, gun sheds, two rectangular manèges for exercising the horses, two lunging circles for riders to practise sabre and lance drills, and an infirmary stables with two stable blocks along with its own exercise ring, two forges and a shoeing shed. The whole was enclosed by a 2-3m high brick to the north and west and a fence of iron railings where the barracks fronted onto Abbey Field.
Much of the impetus for this programme of building at Colchester, and throughout Britain as a whole, arose from the Army Sanitary Commission of 1864, an off-shoot from the Royal Commission for Improving Barracks and Hospitals, established in the aftermath of the Crimean War to address the problems of sickness and mortality in barracks. The results of the 1864 commission were improved ventilation, heating provisions and sanitation in new barracks, with the practice of quartering troops above stables discontinued. However, as described above, although the commission’s findings regarding the accommodation of troops above stables were not fully implemented at Colchester, the design of the Royal Artillery barracks blocks was somewhat innovative. While the men’s living quarters were still placed above their horses, the floors were of concrete supported by iron columns and beams, and the stables were well ventilated to render them more hygienic. In the central stair section dividing the two dormitories, there were separate rooms for the NCOs, and night urinals, indicating the abolition of the noxious urine tub. The Royal Artillery Barracks thus represented a significant improvement on the earlier cavalry barracks.
In 1899 the Royal Artillery was subdivided in to three sections with the creation of the Royal Field Artillery (RFA), the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) and the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA). At Colchester, where the RFA was established, the 1870s barracks were remodelled and extended, with the work being completed by 1904. A plan of the extended barracks published in 1905 (see Sources) shows that three new barrack blocks had been constructed, again with stables on the ground-floor and soldiers’ quarters above, baths, showers and cook house along with a riding school, three manèges and mobilisation and ammunition column wagon sheds and a mobilisation store. One of the infirmary stable blocks was also extended with the addition of three further loose boxes to accommodate a pharmacy at its east end and separate sick and sling boxes at its west end and an isolation stable. Hutted accommodation was also provided to house a Regimental Institute along with a brigade cook house and dining hall. The expanded barracks increased accommodation to house two field officers, 11 officers, 482 non-commissioned officers (NCO) and men, 32 married soldiers, 24 officer’s horses, 282 battery horses and an infirmary for 17 horses. By 1909, an artillery miniature range (or Nutt range) had been constructed on the south side of the riding school.
After the First World War the Royal Field Artillery Barracks were renamed Le Cateau Barracks to commemorate the actions of British II Corps at the Battle of Le Cateau which was fought on the Western Front on 26th August 1914. By 1924, the year in which the RFA, RHA and RGA were merged back into one regiment, namely the Royal Artillery.
In 1933, to meet the needs of mechanisation, a Regimental Institute, brigade cook house and dining room, and Royal Ordnance Corps (RAOC) workshop were constructed on the site of the three manèges.
In 1937, the 27th Field Brigade Royal Artillery was stationed at Le Cateau and consisted of four gun batteries, including 37th Field Battery Royal Artillery, recipients of three Victoria Crosses at the Battle of Le Cateau. In December they paraded with horses for the last time and the unit was fully mechanised in January 1938.
During the Second World War Le Cateau Barracks continued to accommodate units from the Royal Artillery, including Canadian forces. It is believed that the role of the RAOC facility concerned with army vehicle maintenance and repair, was moved to workshop accommodation in Luton. In 1942, the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) was formed from an existing branch of the RAOC, and on their return to Colchester subsequently built a series of large workshops by 1947. During the late 1950s, the workshop was enrolled as 6 Command Workshop, later being renamed as 36 Command Workshop REME, 36 District REME, and remodelled many of the buildings at the site; the riding school became an engineering workshop, later a vehicle repair workshop, the wagon sheds were remodelled as carpenters and telecommunications workshops, which resulted in the infilling of the wagon bays with uPVC windows set in brick walling, while the 1933 cook house and dining room were converted into a small arms repair and rustproofing facility, it being used for the testing, maintaining and servicing of guns deployed on military vehicles, and a textile workshop for repairing seats and canopies from army vehicles.
By 1962, expansion at the barracks had reached a level of over-capacity for the modern army, and proposals were submitted to demolish the Cavalry and Le Cateau Barracks, although only Le Cateau was affected. Buildings at the north end of the site, namely four barracks blocks, the married quarters and gun sheds at the rear of the parade ground, were demolished, making way for a car park. The remaining buildings, apart from the Officers’ Quarters, then used as a Garrison Warrant Officers and Sergeants Mess, were converted to other uses, including army lecture/training rooms.
In 1993 the Army Base Repair Organisation (ABRO) took command of the site, providing engineering support to military units in eastern England. In addition to repairs to military vehicles, radios, instruments, small arms, armaments and other miscellaneous equipment, it also completed high profile special projects to meet operational needs, including those of conflict in many theatres of war. By 1996 most of the former barrack buildings had either been remodelled or demolished and replaced by areas of hardstanding for the storage of military vehicles.
In 2008 ABRO was merged with the Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA) and became the Defence Support Group (DSG). In 2015, DSG was leased by the Ministry of Defence to the Babcock International Group, an aerospace, defence and nuclear engineering services company, who operated at the site briefly before it reverted back to the MoD. Prior to this, in 2014, a new garrison, Merville Barracks, opened on a site to the south of Abbey Field, while the sites of the former Cavalry Barracks and part of the Royal Artillery Barracks, along with Meeanne and Hyderabad Barracks (1898 and 1904), Sobraon Barracks (1904) and Goojerat Barracks (1906, rebuilt 1970-75), were redeveloped as a mixed-used urban community in which some of the older barrack buildings were retained and new buildings inserted. Plans have now (2023) been drawn up to redevelop the vacant ABRO site for housing.
Details
Former Royal Artillery infirmary stables, built in 1874-75 to designs by Lieutenant General Charles Brisbane Ewart RE, Deputy Director of Works for Barracks at the War Office, extended and altered between 1899 and 1904, altered again in the late-C20. Now disused.
MATERIALS: of red brick laid in Flemish bond to the front and gable ends and English bond to the rear, with yellow stock and blue engineering brick dressings, a brick stack and slate roof.
PLAN: it is of rectangular plan, aligned roughly north-east to south-west, divided along its length into seven loose boxes of which the box at the east end (formerly a pharmacy) and the two at the west end (formerly a sling box and sick box) are 1899 to 1904 additions.
EXTERIOR: the building is of a single storey with a gabled roof. Its architectural detailing includes a chamfered plinth, continuous sill band to the high-level windows and a cogged eaves cornice, all of yellow stock brick. Both gable ends are blind with corbelled stone kneelers, two courses of cogging to the eaves and a stone-coped blocking course of blue engineering brick (some of the coping now replaced with concrete). The west gable end is also adjoined by a late-C20 lean-to shed. Below the eaves, to all but the easternmost loose box (the former pharmacy), there is a continuous ventilation grills, of which that to the original 1870s section has a pierced fretwork design, while that to the late-C19/early-C20 additions has louvered vertical slats. All the lintels are cast stone replacements, probably of mid/late-C20 date, and have chamfered soffits, and the window sills are of concrete. All the windows and most doorways, which are flat headed, were externally boarded at the time of inspection (September 2023).
The building's principal elevation faces south-east and is divided along its length into seven loose boxes of which the box at the east end and the two at the east end are 1899 to 1904 additions. From left to right, the easternmost loose box has two doorways of which the left-hand doorway retains its original braced and ledged heck door, while the right-hand doorway has a narrower and shallower braced and ledged door set within a timber surround inserted into the original doorway, all of late-C20 date. The adjoining five loose boxes to the right are all identical, each with a doorway to the left-hand side, again with late-C20 altered doorways accommodating narrower and shallower braced and ledged doors, and an original high-level hopper window with square-paned glazing to the right-hand side. The westernmost loose box (the former pharmacy) has a late-C20 timber door in an original surround and a late-C20 timber casement to its right-hand side.
The rear elevation to Artillery Barracks Folley has eight, high-level hopper windows, all original, with the westernmost loose box having two windows, all with cast stone sills and lintels, deep reveals and square-pane glazing.
INTERIOR: all the internal window and doors openings are cambered-headed apart from the late C20 casement to the pharmacy which has a timber lintel, although the original cambered-head still survives above it. The eastern and westernmost loose boxes have white/off-white painted walls, with the former having a timber floor and the latter a concrete floor, while the walls to the other five boxes are painted black up to the level of the door lintel and then painted white above it, all with cobble floors laid towards a central drainage gulley. The roof is of the principal rafter type, the timber painted white, with the easternmost loose box having a timber-boarded ceiling with deep coving, while the westernmost box was ceiled in the later C20 (now partially collapsed). The remaining five loose boxes are open to the roof and display boarded-up openings for now removed ridge vents. Fixtures and fittings include tethering rings, the concrete base for a now removed stove in easternmost box, a cast-iron fire surround in the westernmost box and two timber beams and coupling rings for securing a horse sling in the sixth box from the left-hand side.
