Stable block. Built for the Houghton family of Park Hall. Datestone inscribed 'F H 1867'. (1)

Park Hall Stables, north of Mansfield Woodhouse, is an open courtyard stable that was built for Captain Francis Hall (1805-1888), who inherited Park Hall on the death of his father in 1823. In his late twenties Francis married Mary Gould and after less than ten years of marriage the couple were living at Park Hall, employing both a groom and a footman. Francis had served in the army, but after a fall
from his horse he left the Service and is said to have been unable to ride again. Despite this, Francis constructed this impressive stable range on which his initials were carved in stone, along with the date 1867. Francis would have been in his early sixties when the date plaque was carved, and he remained at the hall until his death in 1888.1 During his ownership, the estate increased in size, which no doubt helped fund his equestrian building project. (2)
Architecture
The building comprises a spinal range with a central projecting bay with a heated tack room (which still retains its original nineteenth century wall-mounted cupboard), to the left of the central archway. To the right of the archway is a separate two-stall stable. Originally the flanking bays each contained four looseboxes. In the 1970s, the then derelict stables were converted to a veterinary practice. The looseboxes to the right were retained and are still used for horses today. The original dividing walls and heel posts survive but the fronts of the looseboxes were replaced. The north wing comprised four individual looseboxes each with its own door and window. The gable end had a small access to the loft space and the rear elevation has two infilled windows and unevenly spaced decorative vents. The south wing was originally a coach house of three uneven bays, with a carriage wash area with drain to the front. (2)
Constructed in the 1860s, Park Hall stables were built to impress visitors, who in the nineteenth century would have arrived by carriage and with hunting horses. It is hard to appreciate today just how mportant horses were on a country estate. As well as being used in farming, transport and sport the horses were also status symbols. The buildings that housed them conveyed their owner’s status both in their external architecture and as technologically advanced buildings that restored horses back to full strength after work. The architectural merit of Park Hall stable block certainly rivalled that of the main house it served. Its architecturally significant features include the use of dressed stone as the main building material, which was used on all elevations that might be seen from the house or by arriving visitors. The stone used in the rear elevation was rough as it was unlikely to have been seen by the family or their guests. The central range also has two over-engineered gable-end chimney stacks built of dressed stone with moulded decoration. Their presence also shows that the first-floor staff accommodation was heated. This was another luxury that would have served to attract experienced staff to positions in the stables and could have provided comfortable lodging for visiting staff. Even mundane practical elements of the building were given special treatment: the gutters and hoppers were constructed from moulded stone and are still well preserved today. The central two-storey range was constructed with a decoratively coped gabled roof with kneelers and even more impressive were the huge Westmorland slate roof tiles. The windows of this range are as fine as many seen on country houses with their stone mullions and transoms. The central projecting bay provided architectural interest of light and shade. It also has a steeply pitched gable and moulded stone decoration around the clock. The south wing housed three coaches in unequal sized bays with the central bay having an inspection chamber sunk into the floor. The openings were later infilled with stone and a window inserted in each bay. (2)
Fittings
The posts all have a plaque reading ‘Sansom and Bros. Iron Foundry. Mansfield’. Sansom had done his training at the James Maude Foundry where he was an apprentice along with a Mr. Bradshaw. The pair founded the Meadow Foundry in Mansfield in 1852. By 1868 Sansom and Bradshaw were listed as bankrupt, but the Meadow Foundry continued under James Bownes.2 Sansom was trading under Sansom and Bros when Park Hall stables were built in 1867 and a reference to property owned by them on Union Street in Mansfield appears in the Nottingham Evening Post in 1894.3 The firm also appears in Linney’s Almanack 1910 which included an image of the foundry. Other metal fixtures are also very robust including the tie rings some of which are attached to metal bars along which they can slide.
The existing stables have also revealed evidence of historic marks caused by horses tied in the stalls and looseboxes. Tooth scrape marks are evidence of behaviours known as stereotypies, repetitive
behaviours performed as a result of confinement. This ‘equine graffiti’ gives us an idea of how the space was experienced by past horses kept there. Until now this form of evidence has only been observed on timber stall partitions whereas at Park Hall the marks are scratched into the wall at the head of the stall.4 The noise and vibration created by the tie-ring being pulled along the metal wall
bar would have encouraged this behaviour. Timber harness hooks and bridle hooks also survive though not in their original locations. These fittings not only looked aesthetically pleasing but also functioned to prevent leather from creasing. (2)
Ventilation
Another consideration in the design of country house stables was the effectiveness of the ventilation to ensure horses stayed in good health and recovered quickly from their work. Park Hall stable was
constructed with through-wall vents with decorative treatment. Vents are found high in the rear walls and through the plinth of the courtyard elevations. Theorists of the time wrote extensively on the most effective ventilation for stabling. The Victorian preoccupation with hygiene was applied to stable design and two parliamentary reports from 1863 and 1864 described the poor hygiene and ventilation observed in cavalry stables and made recommendations on how to improve their design.5 Theorists warned against building stables with a second floor for either storage or living accommodation as this prevented the stables being ventilated through the roof which was the most efficient way of expelling foul air from the space. This advice was reiterated in many nineteenth
and twentieth century published works on horse management, and evidence of retrofitted stables with improved ventilation exists.2 The architect of Park Hall stables appears not to have followed theorist’s advice as the central range has accommodation above. The singlestorey north wing has no evidence of ridge ventilation, and this, alongside the opening in the gable wing, suggests that the space above was used for storage. A desire for an aesthetically pleasing façade and space for staff accommodation and storage took precedence over providing the most effective ventilation.
This late nineteenth century courtyard stable was a huge financial investment and its architecture surpassed that of the main house of which no trace stands above ground today. The stable building on the other hand is still very much in business, with five looseboxes still used to accommodate horses and the individual boxes of the north range temporarily having equine guests as they undergo
veterinary treatment. There are still unanswered questions about the layout of the north range which has infilled windows in the rear wall and unevenly spaced vents, neither of which appear to correspond to the current internal layout or the arrangement of doors and windows in the front elevation. Further research may throw light on these anomalies. (2)

Listed buildings slides, (Photograph). SNT2648.

<1> DOE, Listed Building Description (Published document). SNT228.

<2> Janine Buckley, 2023, Country House Stables of Nottinghamshire (Published document). SNT5502.