My Tasmania...Dysart House Stable ..Kempton

I have a magnetic attraction to Kempton...My mothers Sister lived there until she passed away quite a few years ago now and when i was young i went to stay with her for about a month and loved it..i even went to school there as well all be it a short couple of weeks.... Kempton is on the highway to Hobart (you have to drive in off the highway though)about 29 miles from Hobart actually.... and Dysart House was originally built for an Inn or a hotel in 1841. It traded as an inn for around twenty years... It is now owned by the well know Sydney media personality Leo Schofield who is restoring it to its former glory and spend time here in Tasmania when he is not in Sydney... i called in and with much bravado inquired if i could photograph just the stable and was given the OK...so here it is...

Now this little sandstone plaque defies the date the Inn was built and the caretaker could not explain the reason why it stated 1245...a total mystery....

the wonderful crumbling hand made convict bricks laid on the sandstone foundation

the arched door where the carriages entered along with the horses.

the door to the upper level where the fodder was hauled up and in through the door then stored on the upper level...nice insulation in the winter ....

this end of the stable was the living quarters for the stable servants.

Even though there are no horses stabled here ....their harnesses and bridles and all the trappings are hanging there waiting for them...... but not a snort or a whinny to echo in that stable...just the silence of what must have been a very busy stable .....and the sound of my feet as i walked on those cobbled flagstoned floors....

As are the saddles all dusty and covered in the droppings from the swallows who have nested above them....

the dusty windows allow shafts of light into the storage areas and shine onto the dusty cobbled floor...

at intervals along the external walls are these solid iron rings embedded into the sandstone blocks cemented into the walls...these where used to tie the horses to while they waited for their attendants to be saddled or unsaddled ....

The door into the stable by which the servants entered ..see the cobble stones all worn by years of walking on.

Even the stable was kept clean..this object was there by the door to remove any dirt or animal matter from the boots before entering the stable....