The Illawalla was an historic Edwardian single-story building in the Skippool area of Thornton, Lancashire, England. Built in 1902, it was demolished in 1996, after lying derelict for six years, to make way for three exclusive homes. Its name is preserved in the name of the road on which these houses now stand and also in the name of the adjacent cricket club, whose grounds partly occupy the land The Illawalla stood on. Illawalla in Aboriginal Australian means the house of plenty. It is believed Frederick J. Emery, one of the early owners of the property, gave it this name to reflect his spell as a government official in Australia.
History
The Illawalla's architects were Tom Wilson Fairbrother and Charles Llewelyn Hall, of Fairbrother & Hall in Poulton-le-Fylde. The building's foundation stone was laid by Vesta Tilley on 12 June, 1902. Tilley was appearing at Blackpool's Alhambra Theatre, whose chairman was C.V. Haworth, the Illawalla's first owner. Upon completion, it was the largest bungalow in Europe. According to a Blackpool Times article from 21 June, 1902: One of the rooms featured a plaster frieze depicting wading birds along the nearby River Wyre. Haworth lived with his wife at the Illawalla up to his death in 1920. His widow continued to live there for several subsequent years. It was next acquired by E. Broadbelt, a wholesale fruit merchant from Manchester. He was its owner during the late 1920s and 1930s. In 1942, it was bought by Frederick J. Emery, but he was unable to move into the building for three years because it was being used by the British Army as a transit camp. It was later taken over by the Home Guard. Later in World War II it became a home run by the Ministry of Health for pregnant evacuees. In the early 1950s, Emery leased the land overlooking the River Wyre to the local cricket club, who remain there today. Several of the interior scenes for the 1977 filmValentino were shot in the Illawalla's sunken entrance hall. For the final years of its existence, after failing in an attempt to become a gentlemen's club, it instead became a nightclub. Emmanuel Christian School in Fleetwood inquired about taking over the Illawalla in 1995, but Wyre Borough Council rejected the plan amid fears of the close proximity of an underground pipeline carrying ethylene to ICI Hillhouse in Thornton. The building was demolished in April 1996, after lying derelict for six years, to make way for three luxury homes. Only two carved stone pillars remain on the site. They are used at the entrance to the current development. Many parts of the building were salvaged and are now used privately.
