The Drill Hall

The Drill Hall, originally a motor depot within a larger early 20th-century barracks complex, was constructed around 1902 by Sir Henry Pilkington. The barracks also included a Captain’s House, mess block, and associated walls. The building is constructed of brick with brick and Portland stone dressings, slate cross-gabled roofs, and distinctive brick and Portland stone arch-panelled ridge and gable stacks.

It is designed in a Free Edwardian Baroque style, featuring a near-symmetrical rectangular plan composed of a central range with towers, flanking drill halls with porches, axial side ranges, and end cross ranges, with three single-storey ranges along the front.

The exterior is a long, symmetrical range with articulated one and two-storey blocks, featuring segmental-arched 6/6-pane sash windows with split keystones. The central two-storey block, with an attic, has a five-bay facade. Gabled, slightly-projecting end cross-wings have gable parapets and kneelers, rising to two square, battlemented clock towers above the roofs. Lunette windows are set within side gables above stone cill bands. A central stepped gable features above a round-arched window. A porch is distinguished by striped stone and brick buttresses and a central keyed entrance arch with cornice moulding and a balustrade. One first-floor window has been removed and replaced with a hoist. The central block is flanked by lower six-bay blocks, with bays two and five projecting and gabled. Entrance bays, featuring segmental arches leading to drill sheds, sit between these blocks and the outer wings, characterised by striped, keyed arch surrounds, pilaster piers with scroll capital decoration, and stepped parapets. The outer wings are two storeys high with a central attic; the central gabled projection includes lunettes with keystones and stone bands. The rear, to the south of the main range, comprises a low, full-length single-storey range with large segmental-arched windows, crenellated parapets, and canted arched corners. Radiating keyed arches flanked by diagonal buttresses are set before the drill sheds.

The interior of the building has not been inspected.