This rather unusual range of looseboxes is located on an outlying farm just south of Rufford Abbey. Their design and fittings are more suited to being on a country estate, but instead they form one range of otherwise typical farm buildings. The range was reputedly built by the 6th Duke of Portland in the late nineteenth century, to isolate his three prize stallions from an equine illness that had broken out at the Welbeck Estate stables. At this time the Duke served as ‘Master of the Horse’, a role in the royal household that gave him jurisdiction over all horse related matters. As such he would have been well acquainted with the best accommodations for horses and aware of contemporary theories on stable ventilation. The Duke’s expertise is apparent in the system he had installed in this range. This stable was supposedly built to accommodate the racehorse stallions Ayrshire (1885-1910) and Donovan (1886-1905). A third horse may have been ‘Johnny Morgan’ who was born in the same year as Ayrshire. Accommodation was also built for a groom in an adjacent house. Renovation of the groom’s house in the 1980s revealed a timber board under the original stairs with script in pencil that read:
F Butler Joiner Mansfield Woodhouse
This House was built by the Duke of Portland
For His man who looks after His Race Horses
Donovan His Great Horse of His day is
in this Stables now, who won £57,000
Design
The looseboxes were designed on a grand scale both in their dimensions and fittings. Each loosebox measured sixteen by sixteen feet, whereas a typical stallion box would be fourteen by fourteen feet.
At the entrance to each door is a non-slip area of slates laid vertically in a chequerboard pattern. The split-doors were constructed of two layers of timber. Where the two halves meet, the timber of both parts of the door is shaped to avoid drafts through the two sections. The eliminating of drafts was better for the horses’ muscles, but sealing doors and windows meant that alternative systems of ventilation were needed to keep the air fresh. Doors also needed locking at night as horse theft was rife in the nineteenth century. The loosebox doors had substantial locks to both the top and bottom halves so that each individual loosebox could be secured.
Entrances
Inside each oversized entrance is a vertical, metal-clad, timber roller with a shaped timber finial. They were designed to prevent horses injuring themselves on the doorframe. The cylinder rolled around
a central metal rod if the horse brushed against it when going through the door. Each doorway originally had a roller on each side, though only one survives at each entrance today. The presence of
rollers suggests that turning the horses out was not a calm affair, with horses rushing through the doorways either through fear or dominance. The use of these rollers and rounded-edge bricks at the
doorways gives an insight into how horses were experiencing their confinement and how grooms struggled with their charges.
Walls and Ceilings
The external brickwork has several areas of rebuilding in different brick and in various bonds. The internal dividing walls are also constructed of brick. The upper half of the interior walls was plastered, and the lower half was originally covered in oak-panelling. While this panelling was removed over fifty years go, the framework still survives today. The exceptionally high lath-and-plaster ceilings and expensive wall coverings suggest that these stables were probably intended to be seen internally, most likely by visitors viewing the stallions at stud.
Ventilation
The ventilation employed was of the best technology with adjustable flue vents in the walls and through the ceiling. Clean air would enter through low-level openings in the rear wall, travel up a flue and enter the stable through a high-level vent. This arrangement avoided any draft over the horse’s back. Foul air would rise and be drawn up through a timber flue in the ceiling which led up to the ridge. The
opening in the roof would originally have been covered by a cupola. The existing cupolas are speculative modern replacements but are a good example of what might have originally existed. (1)

<1> Janine Buckley, 2023, Country House Stables of Nottinghamshire (Published document). SNT5502.