Description:The hotel is situated close to the Staffordshire-Derbyshire border and was originally part of the Ilam Hall estate belonging to the Watts-Russell family. In 1875 the estate and its properties were sold and passed into private ownership. When this photograph was taken the hotel was unoccupied after the Prince family had moved to open the Ashbourne Hall Hotel nearly three years earlier. The hotel currently belongs to the Duke of Rutland.