Ilam Hall And Gardeners Cottage

Ilam Hall and a Gardener’s Cottage form the remains of a country house, now a youth hostel. The hall was constructed between 1821 and 1826 by James Trubshawe, based on designs by John Shaw. It is built of ashlar with slate roofs and ashlar stacks, in a Tudor Gothic style.

The east elevation comprises three parts: a tower to the left, a central range and stair turret, and a porte cochere to the right. The three-story tower has a single window per floor. The ground floor features a doorway with a four-centred head. The first floor has a tall mullioned and transomed window of six lights, while the second floor has two mullioned windows of three lights, each with square heads and straight hood moulds. A moulded parapet band tops a plain parapet. The central range and stair turret, also three stories high, incorporate an open hall extending through two storeys, featuring pointed mullioned and transomed windows with crenellated transoms. The lower two lights have trefoiled heads, the upper two have ogee heads, with stylised Perpendicular tracery above. A moulded parapet band continues to a crenellated parapet. The semi-octagonal stair turret stands higher than the central range, with narrow loops for windows; moulded bands extend from the central range to the second stage and to the crenellated parapet. An integral gable end stack behind the turret has four circular section shafts, two twisted and two with chevron ornament, all with crenellated caps. The porte cochere is two stories high, with an octagonal turret to the right, a crenellated parapet, a concave-sided cap surmounted by a ball finial, and a square projection to the left with a pointed window on the first floor. A central four-centred coach arch is present, and the first floor band is decorated with quatrefoils. A panel on the first floor contains a coat of arms within a moulded surround.

The service courtyard to the north has an east elevation with two stories and five bays, punctuated by a central gatehouse featuring a four-centred coach arch and a first-floor four-light mullioned oriel. An ovolo moulded parapet band sits below a crenellated parapet. An arcade of four-centred arches flanks either side, with three first-floor three-light mullioned windows. A ridge stack, composed of six square-sectioned shafts, sits centrally on the left-hand range of six bays. An integral gable end stack is located on the right.

Attached to the north end of this range is the Gardener’s Cottage, built of coursed and squared limestone rubble with hammer-dressed ashlar quoins and dressings, and features a hipped slate roof and hammer-dressed ashlar stacks. The cottage has a 'L' shape plan and two stories with two windows. A projecting blind wing is situated to the right. The windows have hollow, chamfered mullions and rebated surrounds; the ground floor left has three lights, the first floor left two lights, and the first floor right a single light. A four-panelled door with an oblong over-light, within a molded surround, is located on the ground floor right. The left hand return wall of the wing possesses a three-light and two-light mullioned window featuring hollow chamfered mullions in rebated surrounds.