Former trace horse stables

Summary

Former stables for trace horses, auxiliary horses added to a team to assist in pulling loads up steep hills or over difficult terrain, associated with the carting of coal to Bath from the Somerset coalfield, dating from the expansion of the coalfield in about 1900. The stables are a rare surviving specialist building associated with the extraction and transport of coal from this important mining area.

Reasons for Designation

The former trace horse stables at Crossways near Dunkerton, built around 1900, is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:
* as a rare surviving structure relating to the working of the Somerset coalfield, which was nationally important in the late C19 and turn of the C20;

* as a legible relic of the extensive network of infrastructure needed to support horse-drawn transport before the advent of large-scale motor transport.

Architectural interest:
* although modest, the building is constructed in local stone and reflects the local vernacular building tradition, with little later alteration.

History

The stables are situated at Crossways, above Dunkerton, on the long hill up into Bath from the area formerly known as the Somerset coalfield. Coal had been mined in increasing volumes from the C17 onwards in the Cam Valley, encompassing an area north of Midsomer Norton and Radstock running east-west from Farrington Gurney, through Paulton and Camerton to Dunkerton. Coal for sale in Bath was initially carried by packhorse along the valley and up the steep hill at Dunkerton, and from there into the city. By about 1700, the mud tracks were inadequate for the volumes of coal which needed hauling to Bath. Turnpike roads were instated, the tolls allowing for better road surfaces to be created. These improvements meant that coal could be hauled from the Cam Valley to Bath in greater volume, by horse and cart rather than the earlier pack horses.

The trace horse stables at Crossways, Dunkerton were constructed around 1900, and are depicted for the first time on the Ordnance Survey map published in 1904. Stables were provided at the top and bottom of Dunkerton Hill to allow the horses to be changed, or an extra trace horse added, for the climb up the hill. The coal haulage companies would have been able to change horses at this point, part way up the two-mile climb between coalfield and city, and would also have been able to add an additional trace horse, waiting in the stables at the top of Dunkerton Hill, if it was needed for the next, steep leg of the journey. Production on the Somerset coalfield was at its zenith in around 1901, when there were 79 separate collieries and production was 1.25 million tons per year. This was the same period in which the trace horse stables were constructed. The importance of the horse-drawn transport network in this period is clear; in 1853, Fanny Mayne, writing in ‘The True Briton’, complained about the difficult job the horses had to do in coal haulage, and singled out this route for criticism: "It is a very long hill, nearly two miles long, and up it are dragged nearly all the carts, waggons, and "noddies", loaded with coal, which supply Bath and its environs with that very necessary comfort, or comfortable necessary. A sad sight is Dunkerton Hill!" The addition of the stables at Crossways in about 1900 eased this journey considerably.

The trace horse stable at the bottom of Dunkerton Hill is no longer extant. The present trace horse stables at the top of the hill, where horses were changed to travel onto Bath, were constructed opposite the Crossways Inn in about 1900. At this time a very large new colliery at Dunkerton was begun, which would become the largest in Somerset in its 20 years of operation. Initially all the coal was moved from Dunkerton by road, until a railway was brought to the pit in about 1910. Coal from Dunkerton colliery would have increased the haulage traffic up the hill significantly, all of which would have required the use of trace horses.

After it became redundant as a stable building, the structure became an outbuilding for the adjacent cottage. Historic maps show that there was previously an attached structure to the rear, since removed; the scar from this addition shows on the rear elevation.

Details

Former stables for trace horses, associated with the Somerset coalfield, dating from about 1900.

MATERIALS
Limestone rubble and dressed stone; clay Roman tile.

PLAN
Rectangular, single cell.

DESCRIPTION
A small, almost square stable, with its main elevation to the roadside. This elevation is constructed from well-dressed and squared stone, with tight joints and quoins; the openings have stone dressings and flush cills. To the ground floor are two stable doors, to left and right flanking a narrower pedestrian doorway, all under heavy stone lintels, with a square taking-in door above. The returns and rear are constructed from large rubble stone. The north gable end has a square taking-in opening. The rear has a slightly off-centre pedestrian doorway, and the possible remnants of a chimney at eaves level at the gable end. The roof is covered in clay Roman tiles, and has V-shaped ridge tiles and coped verges, with plain bargeboards to the gables.

Sources

Books and journals
Macmillen, N, Chapman, M, Coal from Camerton (2014), 59
Down, CG, Warrington, AJ, The History of the Somerset Coalfield (2005), 120-6

Websites
Bath World Heritage Site Setting Survey (2009), accessed 11.09.2020 from https://www.bathnes.gov.uk/sites/default/files/world_heritage_site_setting_study_rev4_current_22-10-09_web_version_part_3.pdf

End of official list entry