The site is situated a few hundred metres from the sea on the flat area between Worlebury Hill in the North and the Brean Down peninsular in the South. It was farm land until absorbed by Weston-super-Mare which expanded as a resort in the nineteenth century. The coming of the railway in the 1840's assisted this process, the loop line passing to the East of the site and the third station for the town ending up a few streets away.
A plot of land 25 feet by 126 feet, originally belonging to Eva Farm was conveyed to Mr J N Shorney by the owner, The Reverend LLewellyn Paganus Williams on 1st September 1896. The original Farm House still exists in Drove Road - although all its fields have been sold over the years as the town developed. The conveyance documents stipulated the height and materials to be employed in the boundary walls and even ruled out certain uses for any buildings to be erected including 'noisy, noxious or offensive trades'.
It is not known when the plot was extended by twenty square yards to the north at the eastern end. A ribbon of land approximately nine feet wide had been identified as a 'reserved strip' in the 1896 conveyance, probably intended to provide access to rear gardens, but the final design of the houses in Clifton Road rendered this unecessary since they were constructed in pairs with an access path set between. The (now surplus) land was mostly divided up between the houses to give most of them a slightly longer back garden. However, part of the strip was taken up by a two storey stone building which extends the site into the former footpath zone. This was probably constructed around the turn of the twentieth century as a contractor's store/workshop before the houses in Clifton Road were built.
It is unlikely that the two storey building was ever a stables - this description first appeared on the deeds in the late 1970's although it may have been a coach house at some stage in its history. The single storey workshop building running along a portion of the northern boundary probably dates from the 1920's, together with the two lean-to toilets (now demolished). It was constructed in two halves, part in brick (with a corrugated asbestos roof) and the remainder in timber (with a corrugated iron roof).
Remote controlled model boats and steel shelving were assembled on site during the 1970's. It is around this time that the main two storey building was converted into four smaller units, each with their own electricity meter.
The premises were purchased by Richard Winters in 1989 to be used as a store for his antiques business. He aquired a larger warehouse in Burnham-on-Sea in the late 1990's and then set about selling the Stables.
