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Ilam, Staffordshire

Historical Description

Ilam, a village and a parish in Staffordshire. The village stands in a picturesque vale, under the high limestone ridge of Bnnster, in the valley of the Manifold, 1 mile W of the foot of Thorpe Cloud and the entrance of Dovedale, and 5 miles NNW of Ashborne. It is a place of great beauty, contains a highly-decorated hexagonal cross, erected in 1840 to the memory of Mrs Watts Russell, and has a post office under Ashborne; money order and telegraph office, Fenny Bentley. The civil parish is made up of the townships of Ham, Castern, and Throwley, with the extra-parochial district of Musden. Acreage, 3571; population of the civil parish, 246; of the ecclesiastical, 228. Ham Hall was erected in 1823 on the site of an old mansion, and is a noble edifice in the Tudor style, with a Norman tower. The rivers Hamps and Manifold find an egress from their subterranean course in the Hall grounds. The vale of Ham abounds in beauty and romance, forms a great attraction to tourists through Derbyshire, and is said to have been Dr Johnson's Happy Valley in his " Rasselas." A grotto near the hall, still known as Congreve's Grot, was the place where Congreve wrote his " Old Bachelor," and part of his " Mourning Bride." The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield; net value, £280 with½residence. The church was beautifully restored in 1856 by Sir Gilbert Scott, has a saddleback western tower, and contains an ancient font, S. Bertram's shrine, and other curious monuments. The old church had an ivy-covered tower, and was very picturesque. A small Gothic chapel stands over the burial vault of the Russell family, and contains a monument, with group of statuary, by Chantry.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyStaffordshire 
Ecclesiastical parishIlam Holy Cross 
HundredTotmonslow 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Church Records

Findmypast, in association with the Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent Archive Service have the Baptisms, Banns, Marriages, and Burials online for Ilam


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Ilam from the following:


Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Staffordshire is online.


Maps

Online maps of Ilam are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Staffordshire newspapers online:


Villages, Hamlets, &c

Castern
Throwley
DistrictStaffordshire Moorlands
CountyStaffordshire
RegionWest Midlands
CountryEngland
Postal districtDE6
Post TownAshbourne

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