Bellfield Stables

and Cottages

 

This is where the Bellfield stables and under gardeners cottage would have been located. One of the groom’s who looked after the horses, lived in a cottage called the Grooms House. It didn’t have a bathroom inside, but there was a separate building at the back of the houses called a ‘dry lavatory’ which they used.. The bedrooms in the house were on the top floor next to the roof and in the winter, when it was very cold, the people who lived in the house moved down to where the fireplace was.

At the back of the cottage there was a bottle well where the groom used to fill up buckets with fresh drinking water for the horses that lived in the stables.

Also at the back of the buildings was the ‘bleaching green’, where washing for the Mansion House was dried. Modern houses were built on the site around 1952.

The stables were located near the first Monkey-puzzle tree at the right hand side of the south end of the Estate. Behind the stables was a studio that Stuart Park an artist used to create his paintings.

 

 

This is one of Stuart Park’s pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

The stables and buildings, which were sited here were demolished in 1970, at the same time as Bellfield House.

There were gates at each end of the driveway and lodge houses inside the gates. At the south entrance you can still see the pieces of sandstone on the ground, which came from the pillars of the original gates. St Ninian’s Church is close to the site of the South Lodge.