MSO9425 - Dunster Castle Stables (Building)

SS 9912 4356 - The Stables, Dunster Castle, Grade II*, Castle Hill. Constructed c.1660. Two storey and L-shaped plan. For full description see list. [1] Pevsner states of the stables "Early C17, with mullioned windows. The mullions are of wood. Inside the original boxes." [2] Circa 1660. Red sandstone, hipped slate roofs. Two storeys, L-shaped plan. Front stone chimney stack set between row of seven hipped roofed dormer windows. Six wooden mullion and transom windows with leaded casement lights. Slated hood on wooden brackets to doorway at left hand end. Stone mounting block. Return wing with two hipped roofed dormer windows and a central plain doorway breaking eaves line, hipped roof. Central wide doorway to ground floor, square headed moulded frame, plain boarded door. Doorway flanked by single mullion and tansom windows with leaded casements. Two casement windows with leaded lights to west gable and staircase turret in return angle of building with modern staircase. Interior: front section has nine horse stalls with partitions, heel posts with acorn decorations. Return wing separated into two stables by cross wall, east end has eight open stalls with ornamental heel posts with partitions. All horse stalls appear late 17th or early 18th century and are important examples of their type. [4] The Stables were probably built shortly after 1660 to replace those damaged during the Civil War. However, the impressive array of stalls within may have come from this earlier building. When polo tournaments were held at Dunster at the beginning of this [20th] Century, the stables were filled to capacity; the Maharaja of Jodhpur, for example, brought a string of sixty-two ponies. Today the Stables house the [National] Trust's Shop. [7] English Heritage Listed Building Number: 264650. First Listed on 22/05/1969. [5] The stables are included within Dunster's Conservation Area. [6] The building was visited in May 2012 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. It received a BAR score of 6. [8] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [9] The building is mentioned in the 2018 Conservation Area Appraisal for Dunster. [10] The building was assessed as part of the 2018-19 rapid condition survey of Exmoor’s Listed Buildings, receiving a BAR score of 6. [11]