Brickfield Stud

Summary

Brickfield Stud, a range of stable buildings constructed in 1883, with a detached stable block added to the south-east around 1900.

Reasons for Designation

Brickfield Stud, built in 1883 with a detached stable block added around 1900, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* for the architectural quality and elegant proportions of the stable ranges, which reflect the wealth and status of the commercial horseracing industry in Newmarket in the late C19;
* for the successful employment of local vernacular building materials in the construction of the stud buildings, including buff brick and locally sourced flint, typical of vernacular buildings of the region;
* for the high proportion of survival of many original interior fixtures, including ceramic mangers, ventilations panels, lion-headed ring tethers and internal passage doors, which express the considerable investment made in equine care and horseracing towards the end of C19.

Historic interest:
* as an interesting example of a former commercial stud and training stables, and its place in the development and investment in the horseracing industry at Newmarket in the late C19;
* for the historic association with Lillie Langtry, an influential socialite and figure within horseracing, who stabled 20 of her thoroughbreds at Brickfield Stud.

History

As the most prestigious of several centres for the training and breeding of racehorses in Britain, Newmarket is popularly known as the ‘headquarters’ of thoroughbred racing. With the interest dating from early C18, this pre-eminence is evident within the town and its environs by two historic racecourses and the high concentration of stables and other buildings provided for the sport, its associated industries and its administration. Though there are other important historic racehorse stables elsewhere in the country, Newmarket stands out for the number and importance of its racehorse stables, and for the fact so many are still in use.

Brickfield Stud was constructed in 1883 incorporating Etheldreda House, probably built as a racehorse trainer’s house. The house is shown on the 1885 six-inch Ordnance Survey map wrapping around the south-west corner of a square stable yard, with blocks of stables bounding the north-west, north and east sides of the yard. By the time of the 1903 OS map, a small extension had been added to the interior (north) corner of Etheldreda House, and a porch added to the centre of its front (south-west) elevation facing Exning Road. Etheldreda House was extended to the east with a two-storey extension in the mid-C20 (after 1950) and to the north and south around 1980. The stud appears to have interchangeably been known as ‘Etheldreda House’ or ‘Brickfield Stud’, and the OS maps begin to name it Brickfield Stud from the mid-C20 onwards.

The 1903 OS map illustrates that a long detached two-storey stable block was constructed south-east of the stable yard, and two small detached stable buildings constructed east of the stable yard around 1900. From 1895 onwards, the British socialite and actress known as Lillie Langtry kept a string of 20 racehorses at Brickfield Stud, including the highly successful Merman, all trained by Fred Webb. Brickfield Stud was utilised as an army training camp during the First World War (1914-18), and reputedly later for the training of Russian Officers around 1918. It was converted to a stud in the 1930s by its then owner Major Harry Keylock MRCVS, and the stables remained in use until around 2020.

Details

Brickfield Stud, a range of stable buildings constructed in 1883, with a detached stable block added to the south-east around 1900.

MATERIALS: The stable blocks and walls of the stable yard, and long detached stable block to the south-east, are constructed of flint with buff-brick dressings, and the stable blocks have slate roofs.

PLAN: The stable yard is square on plan, with three attached stable ranges to the north-west, north, and east sides of the yard. Etheldreda House is roughly L-shaped on plan, and wraps around the south-west corner of the yard, facing west to Exning Road (Etheldreda House is of lesser interest). The yard has gated openings to the centre of its west side and east end of its south side. The detached stable block is long and rectangular on plan, and stands approximately 8m south-east of the stable yard.

EXTERIOR: The stable yard is square on plan and has a single-storey range to each of its north-west and east sides, and a two-storey range to its north side. Each range has a hipped slate roof, flint walls, chamfered plinth, and a buff-brick eaves course and dressings. The windows, overlights, and vents to the rear of each stable are all segmental-arched with buff-brick surrounds.
The single-storey north-west range, possibly former groom’s accommodation, was converted to a flat in the early C21, with blocked window and door openings to the yard elevation, and all windows and doors replaced with uPVC.
The two-storey stable range to the north side of the yard wraps around the north-west corner, with a single bay to the north-west side, and eleven bays to the north side. The central bay of the south (yard) elevation is gabled with a wind vane to its apex. The flint walls have a buff-brick stringcourse over the ground floor. The single bay on the west side of the yard has a ledged and braced timber door to a former feed room, and an overlight with two-pane horizontal sliding sashes. The south elevation has ten stable doors opening to the yard, each with a multi-paned overlight; the four western stables have four-light horizontal sliding sashes, the central two stables have eight-light bottom hung casements, and the four eastern stables have two-light horizontal sliding sashes. The first floor retains five bays of six-light metal-framed casement windows on the western side, while the four bays on the eastern side were replaced by uPVC in the early C21 when that part of the first floor was converted to a flat. The central gabled bay has a hayloft door with a protective rail. The rear (north) elevation has a ledged and braced timber door to its west side with an eight-light bottom-hung casement overlight; the first floor retains two hayloft doors with protective rails, and 6-light metal-framed casement windows. The first-floor windows and hayloft door on the east side were replaced with uPVC when converted to a flat in the early C21. The rear of each stable has a high-level cast-iron ventilated panel in a segmental-arched buff-brick surround.
The single-storey stable range to the east side of the yard has five stable doors to the north side of a former tack room which has a chimneystack over, a stable south of the tack room, and a former cart shed at the south end (adapted for use as a large stable). Generally, the stable doors have overlights of two-light horizontal sliding sashes, and three large windows either side of the tack room have C20 glazing. To the rear, the east range has a six-over-two sash window on its north end, a fixed four-light window near the north end of the east elevation, and six high-level cast-iron ventilated panels to the stables north of the former tack room. Attached to the south-east corner, a single-storey flint and buff-brick extension with a lean-to slate roof, probably constructed in two phases around 1900, wraps around the south-east corner of the yard. The stable yard has two gated entrances, one from the centre of the west side, and one from the east end of the south side, each with double-leaf six-panel wooden gates. The west entrance is flanked by flint walls with buff-brick dressings and copings, and the gate piers of the south-east entrance have been replaced.

Occupying the south-west corner of the stable yard, Etheldreda House is a four-bay two-storey house, L-shaped on plan, facing west to Exning Road. The house was vastly extended and altered in the mid- and late C20 and is of lesser interest.

Around 8m south-east of the stable yard, the detached rectangular-plan stable block built around 1900 stands two storeys high and 17 bays long with a hipped slate roof. Similar to the two-storey range of the earlier stable yard, the front (west) elevation is constructed of flint with a chamfered plinth, buff-brick eaves course and stringcourse over the ground floor, and buff-brick dressings to segmental-arched stable overlights and first floor windows. The north, east and south elevations are constructed of buff-brick only, and each stable has a high-level segmental-arched cast-iron ventilated panel to the rear. A single-storey closed porch was added to the north end around 1960, and the north three bays of the ground floor and five bays of the first floor were converted to a flat in the late C20 or early C21 with uPVC windows; the buff-brick chimneystack over may have been added around 1960. Eleven stables survive, six to the north and five to the south of a central tack room; the tack room has a ledged and braced wooden door and an overlight with four-pane horizontal sliding sashes, flanked by two-light vertical sliding sashes with horns; the glazing of all other overlights and first-floor windows appears to have been replaced in the mid-C20. A lean-to barn was added to the east side in the late C20.

INTERIOR: The interiors of the stables remain largely intact, with the exception of the north-west range of the stable yard (possibly former groom accommodation) which was converted to a flat in the early C21, and the north three bays of the detached stable block which were converted to a flat in the late C20 or early C21; neither flat was inspected. The surviving stables are all single loose boxes; those of the north and east ranges of the stable yard open directly into the yard, and those of the detached block open west to a former secondary yard. The floors are generally brick paved with drainage channels. The rear wall of each loose box has ceramic mangers manufactured by Doulton & Co Limited of Lambeth, spanning the width of the loose box over a brick plinth. Over the mangers are three tether rings; those in the detached stable block each have a lion-head boss. Each loose box has a central high-level cast-iron ventilation panel with a sliding timber hatch to the interior. Inside the door of each loose box, the side walls have interconnecting pedestrian doors, allowing easy access between each stable; these doors retain original door furniture, and horizontal wrought-iron bands for reinforcement. Inside each stable door is a recessed gas switch on one side, and a high-level hatch on the other, presumably where a gas lamp was safely stored when not in use. The two central loose boxes of the north range, and several loose boxes in the east range are larger in size, allowing more space for mares and foals. The interior layout at the north end of the east range appears to have been altered around 1900 to provide two larger loose boxes; these have sliding wooden doors with vertical bars to their upper part, a reinforced timber partition between the boxes, and windows for natural light. Within the former tack room of the east range, the fireplace has been blocked. Both the two-storey north range of the stable yard and the detached stable block have a hayloft with king-post roof trusses. The hayloft of the north range is accessed by a wooden stair in the north-west corner, and retains a pulley system to lift hay and straw from the rear, and the hayloft of the detached block is accessed by a wooden stair from the central tack room.

Sources

Websites
Newmarket Local History Society, 'Russian Revolution', accessed 27 October 2023 from https://newmarkethistory.org.uk/newmarket-at-war/russian-revolution/

Other
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, surveyed 1884, published 1885
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, surveyed 1901, published 1903
Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, surveyed 1883, published 1886
Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, surveyed 1901, published 1902

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