White House

The White House is a house dating from the 17th century, with substantial alterations and extensions in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It is timber-framed, with plaster infill and a roof covered in handmade red plain tiles. The house originally comprised two bays facing northwest, and features a 18th-century axial stack at the right end. A wing was added to the left end, extending to the rear, along with 18th-century extensions along the full length of the rear elevation. These include a splayed bay to the left and a stair tower in the middle. An early 19th-century lean-to extension with a slate roof adjoins the rear of the right end. A 19th-century single-storey service wing of painted brick, with an axial stack, is situated to the rear right, behind the adjacent property at number 140 (Gages).

The facade features a symmetrical design, with the middle bay projecting slightly. It has two storeys and a cellar. The windows are mainly early 19th-century sash windows, arranged in a 2:1:2 pattern. Alterations to the ground-floor windows on the left and the first-floor windows on the right are noted, being reduced to a single lower light and retaining their original form respectively. The main entrance has a panelled door with glazed upper panels, set within an early 19th-century doorcase featuring paired pilasters, a moulded frieze, and a flat canopy. A moulded plaster cornice and a plain parapet extend around the returns. The roof is hipped at the left end.

The rear elevation has a splayed bay containing a 20th-century sash window, an early 19th-century sash window, and one blocked window on the ground floor. The first floor has an early 19th-century sash window, with the splays blocked. The stair tower contains an early 19th-century Venetian sash window. A late 18th-century sash window is located above the rear entrance. The early 19th-century lean-to extension has a glazed screen with a panelled base and a wide, moulded semi-elliptical arch. There is also a half-glazed door with marginal lights. Much crown glass is present in both front and rear windows. The rear extensions have hipped roofs.

The interior includes a central entrance hall with a panelled dado and a boxed axial beam on fluted pilasters. The right-hand range has a boxed axial beam, oak floorboards, a wide wood-burning hearth (altered for a 20th-century grate), and a vaulted passage through the stack. A boxed beam runs the full length of the ground-floor room to the left. A 18th-century staircase has an open well, scrolled tread ends, three slender turned balusters to each step, a wreathed moulded pine handrail, and a half-rail along the outside wall. The roof of the original 17th-century range was raised approximately one metre to accommodate the wider span of the 18th-century rear extension, preserving the original clasped purlin trusses. Re-used medieval rafters from a crownpost roof, with signs of smoke blackening, are also present.