High House

High House, now a museum and shops, was built in 1595 for John Dorrington and extensively restored between 1976 and 1986 by FWB Charles. The building is constructed of timber frame with a tile roof and stone and brick stack. It follows an E-plan.

The three-storey house with an attic has a symmetrical five-window front. Each upper floor is jettied on console brackets. The ground floor has two 20th-century shopfronts set on an ashlar plinth, with a reinstated central porch also on an ashlar plinth, featuring open front and side openings. Upper floors feature ovolo-mullioned and transomed windows, mostly reinstated, all with leaded glazing. The first floor includes a central oriel window with a bowed shape, containing a two-light and two-pane design with a king mullion and reinstated balustrade with square balusters, flanked by three-light windows and end two-light and two-pane windows, similarly with king mullions. The second floor has a central two-light and two-pane window, flanked by two-light windows and end canted oriels of one light and two panes. The attic has four five-light windows with three upper lights set under gables. The timber framing primarily uses square panels with decorative ogee braces and cusping. The right return features two canted oriels flanked by a two-light window to the ground, first, and second floors, with three gabled windows in the attic. The rear includes two gabled wings, the one to the left with an asymmetrical gable, flanked by a gabled stair wing.

Internally, there are two ashlar fireplaces on the ground floor with Tudor arches and damaged friezes above. Features include stop-chamfered beams and an open-well staircase with turned balusters, stop-chamfered square newels with finials and pendants, and moulded handrails. The first-floor landing contains mid-18th century wallpaper in a Gothick style. A corridor is lined with rectangular flush panelling repainted to the original style, with ovolo-moulded beams and timber-framed partition walls. Two ashlar fireplaces are present, and a rear room retains pieces of mid-18th century wallpaper. A room to the left end has 20th-century wallpaper reproducing designs found on the second floor. The attic includes two roof trusses with timber-framed infill and flanking a stone stack.

High House is believed to be the largest timber-framed town house in England. It is noted that Charles I and Prince Rupert stayed there in 1642, and Izaak Walton, the writer, lived there for many years.