Towngate House And Attached Garden Wall

Towngate House is a house dating from 1743, situated on Back Lane in Higher Whitley. It is constructed of stone-dressed Flemish bond brown brick with a graded grey slate roof. The house is three storeys high and has two windows on its front elevation. Features include a painted stone plinth, rusticated quoins, and bands at the first and second floors. The front door consists of six fielded panels, two horizontal and three vertical, with a horizontal panel above. It has a radial bar overlight with two concentric bars, set beneath a slightly cambered gauged brick arch. The lower-storey windows are 12-pane sashes, recessed but with exposed sash-boxes. The middle storey has flush 12-pane sashes, while the upper storey features flush 9-pane sashes with six panes in the lower sash and three in the upper. Projecting stone cills are present, and wedge lintels support all windows except those on the upper storey. The cills of the lower-storey windows are cut into the plinth. Flush brick gable chimneys are visible. A datestone at the centre of the second storey is inscribed “C : S * : K : 1743” within a round-arched recessed panel flanked by attached Tuscan columns. An attached garden wall, two metres high, constructed of coursed sandstone and brown brick, runs along the road. The interior has not been inspected, but visible features include oak beams and 2-panel doors.