Building record DAL 029 - Dalham Hall Stables

Dalham Hall is a substantial Queen Anne mansion built in 1704/5 for Simon Patrick, Bishop of Ely, and subsequently owned by the Affleck Family and Cecil Rhodes. The hall is flanked by a contemporary red-brick stable block. The imposing external appearance of the two-storied stable is largely original, with symmetrical pedimented gables to its front elevation, and the building remains among best of its kind in Britain. The interior has been much altered however, with its upper storey recently converted into domestic apartments and its ground-floor stalls renewed in the late-19th or early-20th century. The recent renovation included the loss of the original pointing and reddle to the external brickwork, considerably depleting its historic character. The main stable block is flanked by two single-storied axial wings dating in their present form to the mid- or late-19th century but incorporating earlier walls. The western wing, which now contains a gardener's store and tack room, occupies the site of at least two previous structures as indicated by the scars of old roofs and the irregularity of the building's outline on a detailed plan of 1808. Part of the original stable's rear wall was probably rebuilt by Cecil Rhodes' brother in 1906, as indicated by a dated rainwater hopper, but there is no reason to believe the western wing is of the same period (S1).