THE MUSIC ROOM
Before 1802 this site was occupied by late medieval domestic buildings. Collinson, published in 1791, writes ‘The stables and corresponding offices in the front court are of ancient date….. The whole contributes to a very venerable and picturesque building.’ See engraving by T Bonnor.
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The Stables after 1802. These ancient offices, with stables extending southward, were all demolished. In their place, a grand south facing stable wing on the same alignment as the SW wing was built ... with a return stable wing to the NE, (today this includes the cafe). There was a central doorway from the ‘front court’ into the stables, horse access was now round the back, servants and domestic staff accommodation above.
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The Pevsner Guide 2004, suggests the new building was by James Foster - like the porch at the west entrance to the Great Hall. And like the porch, the public face of this SE wing was built using Bath stone ashlar and different to the estate derived rubble stone and render of earlier buildings.
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Country Life, May 72, shows an ‘early’ 1800s model with stonework already blackened from the nearby Colliery. The overall building height matches the SW wing. The battlemented parapet and mullioned windows are in Regency Gothic style like Wood’s Lower Lodge c1805. It aligns with the SW wing but is in a very different style. A Victorian work by Miss Henrietta Sheppard shows floor and windows levels much lower than the SW wing - more similar to the demolished wing - and may be a less reliable record.
MUSEUM & MUSIC ROOM ERA
Image:Mb6066 ©Bristol Culture
With changing interests, in 1885 the Stables were altered to take a Museum Collection and then a Music Room with the installation of a large 30 stops organ. Ground floor windows were widened and lowered and the central doorway replaced with a window. Two large Bath stone chimney pieces (one now decaying), carved in French Renaissance style with twisted piers and large hoods, were installed on the north wall. The coffered ceiling and linenfold panelled walls and shutters completed the conversion from stables to the late Victorian entertainments room.
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WHO BUILT THE MUSIC ROOM?
At the start of the 1800s neither architect nor the family could destroy or copy the older old ‘Inigo Jones’ frontage of the SW wing. In fact Repton drew up designs for John Hugh Smyth, just before his death, which removed all buildings east of the South Gatehouse.
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Hugh Smyth, nephew of John Hugh Smyth, inherited the estate the same year however and set about changing all their plans to create the current building. Hugh did not stay at Ashton Court for long. The building works were no doubt protracted, the hunting was better in Wiltshire and (some say) he could live there with his long time mistress, in preference to his later wife – the Bishop’s daughter and family friend of his uncle who had arranged his marriage. She was much older and died before him but Hugh also died without a legal heir so Ashton Court passed to his brother John in 1824.
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John Smyth. Some family members and books say John built the stables. Like his brother he loved horses but was also a good businessman. He had no family distractions and could have managed the works for his brother.
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Greville Upton inherited Ashton Court in 1853 from great aunt Florence, John and Hugh’s sister. At 80 she clung on for 3 years until Greville was 17, to maintain the Smyth family line. In 1884, prior to the arrival of his new wife, Greville hired Bath architect C.E. Davis to convert the stables to living areas.
WARTIME
Image: The Tank Regiment WWII training at Ashton Court. Image taken in the Billard Room NW wing
During WWI Ashton Court was a military hospital and in WWII a transit camp, RAF HQ and US Army HQ. The organ and collections were relocated and bombed. Some of the stuffed animals collection survives at the Museum.
POST WAR
Image: Ashton Court west front 1960s.
Esme Smyth died in 1946. Protracted negotiations with the council meant that Ashton Court was not ‘acquired‘ until 1959. By then it had been stripped of most of its value, very derelict and vandalised.
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Council ownership. Extensive structural support was introduced under the south wall during the 1970s works. Linenfold panelling was reinstated here, the damp north wall was finished with hard plaster and shiny paint.
RECENT HISTORY
Image: Chris Wood
The Music Room became the centre for balls and weddings and more recently for Artspace Lifespace community and arts based events.
ARCHAEOLOGY
Image: Anthony Roberts
Outside on the front lawn various surveys and drought marks lead to an excavation in summer 2019. These marks were taken to be from the earlier stable buildings around the front court, demolished late 18th/early 19th century.
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The report, copied in part and left out for viewing, explains that to date, almost all pre-existing descriptive, illustrative and drawn plans give conflicting information. Datable finds are concentrated in the 17th and 18th centuries but with some earlier 15th/16th century material. A lot of archaeology remains in the ground but excavations so far suggest a more complex picture than expected.
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The first dig was carried out with the assistance of local schools. Unfortunately the dig planned for 2020 had to be abandoned and in 2021 was replaced with a small geophysical survey because of problems with forward planning in a time of Corona virus.
MUSIC ROOM - THEN AND NOW
Then image: Mb6068©Bristol Culture (not dated)
Now image: FAM volunteer 2021
