High Down House With Buildings And Walls Around Courtyard On North Side

High Down House with Buildings and Walls Around Courtyard on North Side

A Grade I manor house standing isolated on a hillside site, comprising the main house and ranges enclosing a courtyard to the north.

The east range dates to around 1600, probably 1599 according to a plaque, and was built for the Docwra family to mark the marriage of Thomas Docwra with Jane Periam in that year. The north range in the courtyard bears their names and the date 1613 on a plaque over the entrance gateway. The house was enlarged in the mid to late 17th century to a double-pile plan with a new staircase. When sold to Ralph Radcliffe in 1726, alterations were made, though a scheme by Robert Adam in 1768 to rebuild the house as a Palladian mansion for John Radcliffe MP was never executed (plans for this remain framed in the house). In the early 19th century the house was probably "turned round" by converting the south wing into a spacious entrance porch and closing off the stair access from the north courtyard with panelling. Armorial and date panels were set into the new south porch at this time.

A plaque of unknown provenance is set into the east gable of the north courtyard range, bearing the date 1504 and the name of Sir Thomas Docwra, Prior of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, with a shield displaying his arms with the order's arms in chef and their motto below.

The walls are constructed of squared chalk rubble largely concealed by render. The upper floor walls are of mixed construction with timber-framed inner walls, similar to Aston Bury and Rothhamstead Manor. The roofs are steep and covered with old red tiles.

The house presents a picturesque irregular Jacobean courtyard composition. The taller east range rises to two storeys with basements. It contains the kitchen at basement level below the hall, entered at the half-level from the courtyard to the north, with the stair continuing upward to the great chamber on the first floor. The south service cross-wing rises to two storeys with an attic, and a short wing projects to the south, possibly originally a stair tower but now converted to the main entrance porch, providing access at the level of the principal rooms. A lobby in the angle of the wings extends westward as a parallel range containing a staircase and new parlour, dating from the mid-17th century and forming the double-pile south range.

The east wing has two two-storeyed projecting gables of unequal size. The northern gable contains a full-height bay window, and both gables retain original pierced and moulded barge boards. At the north end of this wing stands a large original chimney stack with rebuilt diagonal shafts. The north end of the east wing displays an oak studded entrance door. The north elevation facing the cobbled courtyard features a ground floor bay window at the west end, stone-built with moulded mullioned and transomed frames. Windows on the south elevation are 17th and 18th-century insertions with leaded lights in wood frames. Another original chimney stack, with rebuilt shafts, stands on the west side of the house.

The interior retains numerous 17th-century features and some 18th and 19th-century alterations. There is considerable 17th-century panelling used as dados and two original stone fireplaces in the upper storey east rooms. An archway with Tuscan columns at each end marks the passage from the entrance porch. The back staircase preserves some original features.

The great chamber is spanned by an arch-braced collar-beam truss ceiled at collar level. The lofty basement kitchen is lit through the base of a canted bay window and features a wide four-centred arched fireplace with relieving timber over, a water cistern to the right of the fireplace, and a brick cooking stove set in the base of the window bay. The dining room contains a stone moulded four-centred arched fireplace. A northeast room on the ground floor displays a cast-iron fireplace exhibited at the 1851 exhibition, with a scallop surround to the circular opening.

Two-storey ranges extend along the west and north sides of the courtyard, with a wall on the east side. The north range is the older of these and is pierced by an entrance carriageway near its west end. It provided lodgings or dormitory accommodation on the first floor, reached by a stair at the west end in the courtyard. A two-bay ground floor room at the west is entered from the carriageway and retains an original west gable fireplace. To the east of the carriageway lies a five-bay stable. The upper floor features three-light casement leaded windows and a clasped-purlin roof with curved braces to tie-beams from jowled posts in the south wall. A wide four-centred chamfered brick entrance archway in a rectangular frame, with a shield plaque above, opens to panelled double gates.