History

The workshop is at 12 Back Newton Grove in Chapeltown. It is a brick-built coach house building formerly attached to 12 Newton Grove, a later Victorian terrace of 3-storey town houses over a basement storey. The stable is thought to date from the 1870s and is a Grade 2 listed building.

The building was originally divided into 5 rooms: gig-house, stable, groom’s room  on the ground floor, with the attic space  divided into two spaces separated by a  brick arch and wall. The original hay-loft  door survives, along with the feed chute.  Originally, there was laddered access but  no staircase.

The stable and grooms ‘bothy’ were originally at a slightly higher level and will have been separated from the gig-house by a wall, which may have been of timber. The original floor of the stable was of small fired clay bricks. The internal walls of the  stable area were lined with glazed ceramic bricks originally and much  of this internal surface survives.

The building was used by a milkman in the 1950s and a mechanic in the 1970s but had been empty for many years and was derelict before it was renovated from 2008-2010.