Haighton House

Haighton House is a large house built in 1820 by Captain Evan Richard Gerard, later enlarged after 1832 by James Francis Anderton. The building is constructed of brick in Flemish bond with sandstone dressings and has shallow-pitched hipped slate roofs. It features a square plan with a 5-bay front range and 5-bay rear extensions beneath a 3-span roof. The house is two storeys high, symmetrical, and designed in the late Georgian style, characterized by a first-floor sill band, a moulded cornice, a low parapet, and sashed windows with stone sills and splayed stone heads, along with various multiple-flue chimney stacks.

The central bay slightly projects forward and has a parapet that is slightly pedimented. It includes a stone porch supported by coupled Tuscan pillars with an entablature, a panelled and glazed door with sidelights, and a segmental fanlight with radiating glazing bars. The ground floor has four tall 6-pane sashed windows, while the first floor features five 12-pane sashes. The right return wall has a canted full-height bay in the centre, with seven tall 6-pane sashes on each floor. The left return wall has a single-storey canted stone bay in the centre, with windows of varied widths, mostly 12-paned, except for the bay which has full-height windows. The rear of the house has two doors and various sashed windows. An extension or service wing continues to the left from the rear corner and is now used as a farmhouse, which is of less architectural interest.

Inside, the main feature is the entrance hall and staircase, separated by a screen of modified Corinthian coupled pilasters and responds, leading to an open-well staircase with scrolled brackets and two stick-balusters per tread, illuminated by a large domed skylight. Other parts of the interior were undergoing restoration at the time of the survey in 1985. The Anderton family resided here until the 20th century and were active in the social life of Preston, with the site colloquially known as "Squire Anderton's Wood," referring to the wooded valley to the west, otherwise known as Fulwood Park Wood.