Listed Building record MDR12151 - Deer Shelter, South of Deer Cote, West of St Giles's Church, Calke Abbey, Calke

Deer shelter, south of deer cote, west of St Giles's Church, Calke Abbey, Calke, probably built in 1774. To the south of the deer cote in Calke Abbey Park there is a curved deer shelter, open-fronted with a back wall of brick and a purple tile roof supported by six cast iron columns. Within this shelter the walls are lined with wooden stalls for hay. There was also a similar but larger shelter on the north side of the deer cote, marked by brick, tile and collapsed iron columns, and also by the bases of several surviving brick buttresses. The north shelter appears to have been an enclosure wall shown on a map of c1800; that to the south seems to be a later addition, possibly added when there was an enlargement in the size of the deer herd. This feature is to be the subject of a future restoration scheme. Its west end has collapsed and needs rebuilding, the roof needs re-tiling and the iron columns need treating for corrosion. (1) In April 2008 the 18th century deer cote and the later curved feeding stalls/shelters were investigated and recorded prior to consolidation and conservation works. The dating of the enclosure walls and associated shelters is uncertain, unlike the precise date of 1774 that can be given to the deer cote. A plan of Calke made in around 1800 shows an enclosure had been constructed on the north side of the deer cote, but no details are available. This enclosure was subsequently enlarged and extended around the south side of the building. Small-scale trial excavation work in 1998 had successfully established the limits of the feeding shelter and enclosing perimeter wall. Test pits located a series of buried padstones which had been used to support the cast iron uprights of the feeding shelter, while a possible earlier layout of the western section of the enclosure wall and a previously unknown gateway were also identified at that time. It appeared that large parts of the outer feeding shelter had been deliberately robbed-out, rather than demolished. Examination of the structure in 2008 showed it to be in an advanced state of decay, especially on the north side of the main cote, where its existence is primarily indicated by a short section of walling including a gateway, foundations and raking buttresses. Sufficient survives to the south of the main cote to understand its original construction, whereby the roof was supported on an outer wall and, internally, on a series of hollow cast iron stanchions. (2) From the National Heritage List for England: 'PARISH OF CALKE CALKE PARK SK 32 SE 4/23Shelter South ofDeercote GVII Shelter for deer, now disused and partially collapsed. Late C18. Red brick with hipped tiled roof. Single storey. Curved in plan. Brick rear and end wall. Elevation to deercote is open and supported on seven iron columns, a further four have gone from the end which has collapsed. Tiny square openings to rear. Feeding rack inside. With the deercote and a demolished range this originally formed an almost completely enclosed oval enclosure. Listed for group value only. Listing NGR: SK3672022262.' (3)