Georgian stable block and walled garden.Norfolk.

At a loose end wondering what to do.so I found this grade two listed stable block.i could not find any pics of it so headed off to see what it was like.i was very surprised how stunningly beautiful the building was,the stable block was part of a Manor House and was built in the 1790's.the Manor House was destroyed in 1939.the stable block remains but is in a very bad state as I could see when I went upstairs.with holes in the floors in several of the rooms.the stable block is a neo classical design.with three full height brick arches.i could nor acsess the downstairs as its used for some storage and padlocked up.as I ventured out it was nice to see at the front of it a large walled garden with a nice Victorian style greenhouse.i know most people would not bother looking at this but I enjoyed it and was certainly worth the trek to it to avoid the farm house a little way from it.

An original gate to the land of the house I found in woodland.



The view from the front of the main stable block























The door that headed to the wall garden and greenhouse



























Nice to see local workmanship being used in the greenhouse window winder.boulton and pauls was a massive maunfactuarer of metal work and other engineering goods employing hundreds of workers,occupying a massive site in the heart of Norwich.and was a major player in the war effort.manufacturing planes and prefabricated buildings.the German airforce tried to bomb the factory.the factoryis all gone now.but I think the company continues but in a small way.

Lovely, especially liked the greenhouse.

The pipes suggest to me the walls were heated?

This is stunning, thank you Mikey.

I enjoyed that Mikey, there aren't many such places available to view anymore, the growing of the then exotic fruits was a competitive pastime for the manor houses, they were heated and there will be a boiler house nearby (Probably),

Thank you smiler.the pipes ran through.there was a small hut out the back.a little way from the green house.it had pipes running through it.but it was really overgrown.I guessed that was the boiler room.

Another stunner. How do you keep finding these places?

Nicely done. I looked on the net and found that not only did Boulton and Paul probably made the gate but they also made prefabricated shepherds huts.

Excellent as always fella - and no graffiti anywhere - thats a bonus in it self.

Stunning Mikey. You get wet getting there

Mr Mutt, you must get fed up with people saying that your reports are stunning BUT, what else can we say !! Another top notch report from an amazing survivor (the stable block i mean !!)

Thank you all for the nice comments.boulton and pauls was a massive company.next to another big one called Lawrence and scotts.both are a shadow of there former self.sadly tazong I did spot two lots of graffiti on two doors upstairs which I found a bit of a shock as this really is in the middle of nothing bar a few houses.

What a cracking site,10 out of 10 for finding this one Mike.Spot on images,Thanks for sharing

love this one mate. nice big stable block, so must have been attached to a big house in the area?

Wowzas! I am so very, very jealous of this find! I've been scouring maps for months to find stuff like this.
Top notch and thanks for sharing!

Singularity said:

Wowzas! I am so very, very jealous of this find! I've been scouring maps for months to find stuff like this.
Top notch and thanks for sharing!

Click to expand...

Maps are a balls aching way of instigating a search for this type of structure, unless you have good research at one's finger tips - Get yourself a copy of 'England's Lost Houses' by Giles Worsley. Published by Aurum Press in 2002 at £20.00, the limp back version can be found in those bookshops specialising in 'bin ends' for £5.00/£8.00. Taken from the archive of Country Life, this books describes and illustrates many of these properties and their estate buildings. The six page Gazetteer lists all large Country Houses ever built in each English County, their condition now, date and method of destruction and remaining estate buildings etc. Use the book to locate the properties on the relevant map. If one knows where to look, these structures are more common than you would think. The trouble is that the associated 'big house' will be long gone in most cases - de-roofed and eventually demolished or demolished when still a viable building (depending how the Inheritance Tax Laws or Rating Laws were enacted at the time the houses ceased to be lived in or be needed as a family home). Sadly the death toll on family inheritors during WW1 and the wanton destruction of already decaying properties by billeted troops during WW2 meant that many of the houses were bulldozed in the 50's and 60's - some with the attic rooms still full of the original house furnishings (placed there for safe keeping when troops occupied the estates as training establishments during WW1 or WW2).

What a wonderfully built old place!
Thanks for sharing

What a fabulous stable block!! I lived in a similar, and bigger one in the early 70's. Tottenham House, on the edge of the Savernake Forest. Id love to take a peek at this as I now live in Norfolk.....do you reveal its location?

The shots of the large cast iron conservatory heating pipes - circulating hot water from a coal fired boiler somewhere - reminded me of the conservatory and the kitchen garden greenhouse at Bossell, my Devon country home built in 1880. The size of the stable block took me back to the Beauvoir Hunt stables at Woolsthorpe, near Grantham. I worked there as a groom in the late 1960s. The Beauvoir stables were much younger - early 20th century, with accommodation for the large staff needed to look after the many horses. I see - from Google - that they have now been converted into housing; at least they survive.