19th century coach house at Coach and Horses public house (EHER 25556)

The outbuilding was designed as a coach house with four horse standings to serve the business of the Coach and Horses in the mid 19th century. It was recorded in 2020.

2020 and 2022. Building survey. The building is of a type often called a pole barn. It is made from roughly squared timbers, poles and half and quarter poles that have been circular sawn. It was designed as a coach house with four horse standings to serve the business of the Coach and Horses in the mid 19th century. It was improved in the late 19th century by the addition of a hayloft and internal walls. It continued in use as a stable right into the late 20th century after which it became a garage and a store. At the time of the survey it was in parlous condition with some of the main beams completely failed. The building has a rough hewn timber-frame with pole rafters with a simple clasped side purlin roof. It is stood on a plinth of Victorian standard sized bricks and clad with circular sawn weather-boards. The roof was originally thatched for good insulation to protect the horses. The interior is lined with circular sawn plain butted 10in boards and was outfitted as a coach house with stalls for horse standings. The building was equipped with partitions for four horse standings and had three doors on the north-east side to control the horses in and out of the yard and paddock. There are tethering rings, an original harness tree and staple to hang lamps to tend the horses at night. The coach house had a doorway in the southern wall (since replaced with garage doors) and the tie-beam was chosen with a huge upward curve to allow the vehicle to be brought inside easily. The historic mapping shows another building only 10 or 12ft away in 1876 so it may have changed use or the coach was actually a small cart or tumbrel. The fashion for pole built buildings was revived in the mid 19th century and they can be discerned by their lack of carpentry joints, heavy use of nails and wrought iron ties and overly vernacular hand hewn finishes. They can have special features – like the curved up tie-beam and steam sawn timbers. The building is full of circular sawn boards and has a Victorian standard sized brick plinth. The building is a stable and coach house put up to increase the capacity to shelter horses for the business of the Coach and Horses. Its envisaged use may have been relatively short lived as the railway was built close by in 1845 which largely killed the coaching trade which was relegated to local transport only. The Tithe Map for Newport shows the building was in place before 1839 but would have been nearly new by then. There is a fully framed hayloft with 2x4in softwood joists with an overlarge spine beam suspended on wrought iron U-straps. The main joist is supported on a post let into the north wall where the boards have been cut and rejoined together in an attractive pattern. The hayloft was lath and plastered to protect it from vermin and damp. Additional spine beams were added along the building apparently to support a lowered ceiling held on nailed on timber clamps to provide extra insulation. An extra full height partition wall was added by rebating the tie-beam to close of two bays for the coach house. <1>