West Ella Hall

West Ella Hall is a house of mid-18th century origins, with significant extensions dating to the late 18th and later centuries. The fabric is primarily brick, with stucco and colour washing, stone dressings, timber eaves cornices, and a graduated slate roof.

The original character is marked by an L-shaped range built around 1740, originally two storeys and four bays wide, with a rear wing to the right. Rusticated quoins are present. In the late 18th century, the main range was extended with two-storey canted bays added to the end walls. The rear wing was extended and a canted bay was added around 1800. A re-entrant angle between the main range and the rear wing was infilled in the early 19th century and squared off with a block constructed around 1884.

The original west-facing elevation has a projecting, square 19th-century porch with a 20th-century glazed door set within an architrave, flanked by narrow round-headed windows in a bracketed surround. To the right of the porch is a tripartite sash with glazing bars in a pilastered surround; to the left, a late 19th-century canted bay with sashes and glazing bars. The first floor features four sashes with glazing bars within moulded architraves. A bracketed timber eaves cornice and an axial stack are present, with a hipped roof over the later canted bays.

The east-facing front (originally the rear wing) is two storeys high with nine first-floor windows. The ground floor features a central 20th-century glazed door under a fanlight with radial glazing. A two-storey canted bay with a central round-headed sash and flanking 12-pane sashes is present to the left, and a projecting wing of around 1800 with a canted bay to the garden side is to the right. A central French window with fanlight and radial glazing is flanked by full-height sashes with glazing bars. The first floor has sashes with sills and glazing bars throughout. It is topped by a bracketed eaves cornice and has hipped roofs with end stacks.

The present entrance front is irregular in appearance with a double-leaf glazed entrance door under an elliptical fanlight with radial glazing, set in panelled reveals and a soffit. A Tuscan porch with paired columns and an entablature with a low blocking course is present. To the right is a 12-pane sash and two similar sashes to the left. An oriel window above the door has a pair of sashes with glazing bars to the left. The block of 1884 is almost self-contained, two storeys high and four bays wide. It features a plinth, moulded sill band, four sashes with glazing bars under segmental gauged brick arches with projecting fluted keyblocks, and a first-floor band with four similar sashes with aprons. A dentilled eaves cornice and a hipped roof with an end stack complete the elevation.

The interior has been largely modernised, but retains a fine mid-18th century cut-string staircase with vase balusters and a ramped and wreathed moulded handrail. Two rooms feature good early 19th-century plaster cornices, one with a contemporary plaster ceiling.