Summary

Stables and attached cartshed. Built in the C18. C19 and C20 alterations.

Description

Stables and attached cartshed. Built in the C18. C19 and C20 alterations.

PLAN: the stables, comprising a separate loose box and a stable range, both with a hayloft above, form an L-shaped building attached to the north-west end of the late C17 aisled threshing barn (separately listed at Grade II*). To the north is the attached three-bay cartshed.

MATERIALS: walls of flint with horizontal lacing courses of brick laid in Flemish bond, and pitched roofs covered in plain clay tiles. The north end of the cartshed has a half hip with timber weatherboarding beneath; there is also weatherboarding above the openings to the cartshed.

EXTERIOR: the roadside elevation forms a continuous range of brick laced flint, with brick buttresses either side of a blocked opening to the cartshed and a section of timber-framing with brick infill to the stable. To the stable roof is a raking dormer with a taking-in door. To the farmyard elevation the stable range has louvred windows with vertically set slats to provide ventilation; although some elements are missing. The open-fronted cartshed is of three bays with dividing timber posts supporting flat-headed openings with weatherboarding above.

INTERIOR: the interior of the loosebox shows a brick segmental arch above the doorway and a splayed window opening. The loosebox and the stable range are both largely boarded with horizontal and vertical timbers, and both retain their timber troughs and tethering rings. To the rear wall of the stable range are the remains of a split pole feeding rack. The timber ceiling incorporates a feed drop from the hayloft above. The raking stall partitions have been removed, apart from the two at the north end. To the south end of the opposite wall are timber harness hooks. The hayloft has a timber partition and the roof is of common rafters with a single purlin.

The cartshed has Queen post trusses with trenched purlins above the collar, and straight braces from the tie beams to the posts of the principal elevation. Timber frames with arch braces and vertical struts support the weatherboarded sections.

History

Roche Old Court has origins as a late C17 farmstead. The farmstead is shown on Andrews’ and Dury’s map of Wiltshire, 1773 and 1810, where it is labelled as ‘Eyston Farm’. In about 1809, a new manor house, Roche Court, was built to the east of Easton Farm for Francis Thomas Egerton Esq., and replaced the manor house to the south which was on the site of what is currently known as Hills Farm. An estate map for Roche Court, dated 1820, includes Easton Farm, and the tithe map for Winterslow (1840) goes on to identify Easton Farm as ‘Roche Court Farm House and Gardens’. A subsequent lease dated 1860 between Francis Thomas Egerton and the tenant of the farm identifies the farmstead as ‘Easton Farm otherwise Roche Court Farm’ making it clear that Easton Farm and Roche Court Farm are the same site. The name Roche Old Court appears to have come into use in the 1930s and was based on a mistaken assertion that the house was the original manor house for East Winterslow.

The L-plan stables (originally forming a separate loose box, and a six-stall stable range) and an attached three-bay cartshed appears to have been built in the C18, possibly in two phases. The range to the north of the cartshed is a C19 addition that may have functioned as a cowhouse.

Reasons for Listing

The former stables and cartshed is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* built of banded brick and flint the building’s architectural quality and detailing is well-handled;
* for the good survival of historic building fabric, including some of its stalling and associated fixtures and fittings;
* for the survival of its plan form and the continued legibility of its historic function as a stables and cartshed in the historic fabric.

Historic interest:

* as a relatively rare example of a pre-C19 stables and cartshed;
* for its contribution to our understanding of the development and strengthening of regional farming traditions and how they have evolved;
* as a key building in the farmstead group, that by the early C19 formed part of the Roche Court (Grade II*) estate of Francis Thomas Egerton Esq.

Group value:

* with the Barn at Roche Old Court (Grade II*) and the farmhouse Roche Old Court (Grade II*) that together form a loose courtyard arrangement of associated farm buildings;
* with Roche Court (Grade II*).

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26480035

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)