Higher Hill Farmhouse

SD 62 SE TOCKHOLES HIGHER HILL

4/65 Higher Hill Farmhouse 24.11.1966 GV II*

Large farmhouse, C17, with some C19 alterations. Sandstone rubble with quoins, stone slate roof with gable copings and kneelers, one chimney on the right at the junction of the 1st and 2nd bays, a smaller chimney behind the ridge at the junction of the 2nd and 3rd, and another at the front left corner. F-plan: 3 bays with projecting wing to the front of the 1st bay and projecting porch at the junction of the 1st and 2nd bays, 2 storey outshut to rear. Two and a half storeys, presenting 2 gables to the front: gabled 2-storey porch with oversailing upper floor has a segmental-headed moulded doorway in a surround of dressed blocks with a moulded cornice, a moulded datestone surround rising from this (now containing a carving), a 3-light window at 1st floor and a blocked round-headed light in the gable, which has kneelers. Some windows have been replaced with C19 sashes, but there are original windows, mostly with hollow-moulded mullions, chamfered surrounds, and hoodmoulds, in all walls: wing has a blocked round-headed light and a 2-light window at ground floor and another in the attic, a hoodmould to a blocked window in the re-entrant with a single light above, and a 2-light window on each floor of the return wall; there are blocked attic windows with hoodmoulds in both gables of the main range; and in the rear wall a king-mullioned window of 3+3 lights, a 2-light firewindow; and a 3-light window on each floor of the 1st bay. Otherwise, the principal external features of interest are a complete garderobe at 1st floor of the return wall of the wing, and a stone at 1st floor of the right gable wall lettered "RW" (= Ralph Walmsley?). Interior: housepart in 2nd bay has 2 lateral beams with ovolo moulding, parlour in 1st bay has Tudor-arched stone fireplace with chamfered surround, and is now opened out to include the whole of an original stone staircase which has ¼-turns to left and to right, the latter supported on a moulded stone corbel, the former passing the restored single-seat garderobe. History: home of the Walmsleys, yeomen, who bought the Ryal estate in 1660: house is very similar to Ryal farmhouse (q.v.).

Listing NGR: SD6576922585