Description

Late 18th to early 19th century with later additions and alterations. 2 storey circular-plan house with single storey, and single storey with basement, flanking wings set on sloping site; single storey, 3-bay wing incorporating gabled porch to front; bowed projection at rear. Whitewashed harl; some painted margins; flush cills; sandstone dressings to porch addition.

SE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: entrance wing comprising 2-leaf, part glazed timber panelled door off-set to right of centre; small paned, round-arched fanlight; beak skewputts flanking gable with ball finial above; single windows in 2 bays to left; 3-light stone mullioned canted window in re-entrant angle to right. Circular plan house adjoined at rear with later timber-mullioned bipartite window at ground to right; blinded opening with painted imitation window above. 2-bay wing to outer right with single windows in each bay. 2-bay wing slightly recessed to outer left with single windows in each bay.

SW (SIDE) ELEVATION: single window centred in S wing.

NW (REAR) ELEVATION: circular-plan house off-set to left of centre with single windows at both floors off-set to right; bipartite window at 1st floor off-set to left; adjoining bowed projection with round-arched window centred at ground; single window in return to right. 2-bay wing to outer left with 2-light basement window in bay to outer left; lean-to projection obscuring bay to right; single windows in both bays above. Single and 2-bay ranges stepped up hill to outer right with single windows in all bays.

NE (SIDE) ELEVATION: N wing with part-glazed boarded timber basement door off-set to right of centre.

Predominantly 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows; some small-pane casement/fixed windows; some lying-pane glazing; some lattice-pane metal glazing; small-pane upper, 8-pane lower timber windows to canted porch light. Grey slate roofs (conical roof to circular-plan house); raised stone skews to N wing. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Harled and coped circular stack surmounting conical roof; corniced ridge and apex stacks; various circular cans.

INTERIOR: not seen 1997.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND GATES: rubble walls enclosing site (mutual with Ellem Old Inn in part). Square-plan tooled sandstone gatepiers flanking main entrance; pyramidal caps; hooped iron gates. Ball-finialled iron gatepiers flanking secondary entrance; wrought-iron gate.

Statement of Interest

An intriguing building, the circular part of which is thought to date from around 1800 and may have been a lodge or tollhouse. Today, Ellem Lodge (named Ellem Cottage in Smith's book of plans) and the nearby Ellem Old Inn and Woodside Cottage (see separate list entry) are owned by the health care service, Care For Mission - the headquarters of which are here. All three properties are contained within the boundaries of the designed landscape at Whitchester (see INVENTORY). Another circular-plan house can be found in the nearby parish of Abbey St Bathans - see separate list entry, 'The Retreat'.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17842422

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)