Description

MAMHEAD MAMHEAD PARK
SW 98 SW

5/327 Stable yard and service buildings
north west of Dawlish College
11.11.52 (Mamhead House)

GV II *

Stable yard including gatehouse, stables, brewery and associated service buildings
with a drying yard. Converted for use as classrooms and sports facilities. 1828-
1833 by Anthony Salvin for Sir R.W. Newman, Bt. Red sandstone rubble with sandstone
ashlar dressings. Baronial Gothic, the brewery a copy of Belsay Castle in
Northumbria.
Plan: North-west of the house and high above it, the stable yard and service
buildings are designed as a craggy, picturesque foil to Mamhead House (q.v. Dawlish
College). The central courtyard is entered through a convincingly massive gatehouse,
complete with portcullis at the north-west corner, with the stable ranges to the
west, the brewery in the north east corner and a castellated wall along the east side
overlooking the rear elevation of the house and an elevated drying yard which is
outside the stableyard. The stable yard is entered on the east side (from the house)
by flights of covered steps parallel to service rooms used as cellarage and
laundries.
Exterior: The Gatehouse: Massive squat gatehouse with left and right bastions with
plinths and plain parapets, each with 2 first floor trefoil-headed slit windows and
with an arrow slit on the inner, return. A moulded depressed 2-centred arched doorway
with fake portcullis is recessed between the bastions with stepped castellations
above and a segmental moulded arch in front of and above the door imitating the
arrangement for boiling oil to be poured on to unwelcome visitors. The gateway is
vaulted internally with red sandstone ribs with brick infill and shouldered doorways
to left and right and a shouldered doorway leads out into the stableyard.
The Stable Ranges: facing the yard the west range has 4 round-headed door,ways below
small windows and, on the south side, a block with a central double-chamfered arch.
Interior of stables not inspected: there have been some 1980s alterations within the
west range where a concrete block wall has been built.
The Brewery: Based on Belsay Castle, Northumbria. The siting of the brewery allowed
beer, to be gravity fed to the cellars. 3-storey, embattled, with 3 corbelled-out
rounded corner turrets and a fourth turret for the stair square on plan, facing into
the stable yard. Shouldered doorframes; slit window some with cusped heads and
paired trefoil-headed windows to the first floor, on each face with cusped detail
above the arches. On the stable yard side there is a 4-light ground floor mullioned
window and a corbelled-out garderobe feature on the second floor. The other faces
are partly obscured by foliage.
Interior: Not inspected but said to be partly vaulted.
Service Ranges and Drying Yard: the service ranges have brick vaulted roofs. The
drying yard is enclosed by red sandstone walls with stepped battlementing at each
corner.
Hussey, C. English Country Houses: Late Georgian (1958)
Salvin's original drawings survive in the R.I.B.A. Drawings Collection.

Listing NGR: SX9296781138

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17536077

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

• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)