Higher House

Higher House is a house dating from the early 18th century, with extensions from the early 19th century and refenestration in the mid-to-late 19th century. It is constructed of red brick with painted sandstone ashlar dressings, with a later addition faced in tooled rusticated grey sandstone ashlar. It has plain tile roofs, hipped over the left-hand wing. The building is two and two-and-a-half storeys over a basement.

Architecturally, the front features a moulded plinth, raised chamfered quoins, a plat band, and a moulded wooden dentil eaves cornice. A central break is marked by quoins and an oeil-de-boeuf (bull’s eye window) within a steep triangular pedimented gable with moulded verges. Parapeted gable ends have chamfered coping, moulded kneelers, and external brick end stacks. The front elevation is arranged as a 1:1:1 bay arrangement, with glazing bar and four-pane sashes, stone cills, and lintels with raised keystones, the centre being a triple window. A pair of probably late 18th-century ground-floor canted bays have glazing bar sashes, moulded eaves cornices, and lead tops. A pair of central half-glazed panelled doors are set within a lugged moulded architrave, featuring a projecting triple keystone and a flat hood on carved scroll brackets, with a moulded cornice and two-panelled soffit. An early 19th-century wing is set back to the left, with a first-floor cill band, a moulded stone eaves cornice (with dentil brick on the side), and an integral brick end stack to the left. This wing has two first-floor wooden casements and three ground-floor Gothick glazing bar sashes with Y-tracery. The left-hand return front includes a probably reset datestone inscribed “E.” The rear has a two-storey and attic-gabled wing to the left with dressed red sandstone lower parts and triple-keyed sashes; a central stair tower; and a one-storey kitchen wing to the right with a brick stack.

Inside, the mid-18th-century staircase features an open string, turned balusters (two per tread), a columnular foot newel post, and a moulded ramped handrail, with the balustrade returning to the landing. An early 18th-century depressed-arched fireplace is found in the right-hand bedroom, with a raised-and-fielded panelled surround and fluted keystone, and an early 18th-century fireplace in the left-hand bedroom, also with a raised-and-fielded panelled surround and a keystone with a shaped lower edge. An early 18th-century door under the back stairs has bolection-moulded panels and H-hinges. Three early 18th-century fireplaces were introduced to ground-floor rooms in the late 20th century; the right-hand room's fireplace has a lugged architrave, pulvinated frieze, and dentil cornice, the left-hand room’s a lugged architrave, frieze with husk festoons, and moulded cornice while the addition has a lugged architrave, carved pulvinated frieze with flanking scrolls, and a cornice with egg and dart enrichment. The original front of the 18th-century portion was of a 2:1:2 bay design, as evidenced by straight joints of blocked windows. The fenestration was likely altered in the mid-to-late 18th century. The house shares a similar design to The Well House and the Elephant and Castle Hotel and may be by the same architect due to the steep pedimented gable.