High Gables

High Gables is a house dated 1830 by J and T Uttley for W Mann. It is built of rendered brick with ashlar dressings and a Welsh blue-slate roof. The house has an unusual three-cell plan, with the outer cells being double-depth. It is constructed in a Jacobean Revival style and is two and a half storeys high. The front elevation features three gables, each cell facing a different angle, with rusticated quoins. The symmetrical design is notable for its central doorway with a Tudor-arched lintel, a moulded surround with a hood on brackets, and a date plaque to the right of the ground floor. All windows are chamfered mullioned with composite jambs; a two-light window is set in a shaped gable with copings and a lantern finial above the door. Narrow flanking bays contain long chamfered lights, also with a window above. The outer cells project, each featuring a three-light window, with a two-light window above, and an altered attic window set in a shaped gable. The roof is covered with fishscale slate, and a single stack is located to the left of the centre cell.

The left-hand return has two bays of three-light windows with a two-light window above, separated by a single long, narrow light with a matching window above. A lateral stack is also present.

The interior features an octagonal entrance hall with a foliated cornice. Three doorways with architraves flank a basket-archway with moulding and colonnettes, leading to the staircase, which is a closed-string design with turned balusters. The first cell on the left incorporates a cast-iron fireplace in a Neo-Classical style, featuring pilasters, a frieze decorated with palmettes and swags, a dentil cornice, and a carved casement-moulded cornice. A moulded ceiling cornice is also present.

The building was originally known as Mann’s Folly.