High Ash Farmhouse

A farmhouse dating from the 16th century with later additions, located on High Ash Road near Ketteringham. The building is timber-framed with rendered finish and brick casing, roofed in pantiles and plain tiles, and forms an L-shaped plan consisting of a 16th-century front range of four cells and a chimney bay, together with a 19th-century rear wing to the left. The structure stands two storeys high.

The north façade facing the road is rendered and colour-washed with pantiled roofing. A chimney bay sits between the first and second cells, with an axial stack whose shaft was rebuilt in the mid-19th century featuring recessed semi-circular headed panels with keystones of three different builds. A datestone bearing initials (possibly E S) and a date now too eroded to read is visible. An end internal stack to the left, with its shaft rebuilt in the 20th century to match, serves the wing. Window openings throughout feature narrow casement lights with trefoil leaf latch handles. Those in the first bay are four-light openings with ovolo-moulded pine frames, while the remaining openings in the first cell, chimney bay, and cells two to four have 19th-century chamfered frames of one, four, two and three lights respectively. The rendering to cells three and four is noticeably thicker and offset from cell two. A single-storey lean-to spans bays three and four.

The returns to the front range are of brick in English bond, dating to the 17th century, with recessed gables topped by crowstepped parapets. The right return features two bull's-eye openings with rubbed brick moulding, and a rubbed brick plaque with a scrolled base and blank shield. The left return has a base of broken flint with some limestone, and its gable displays two blank bull's-eye openings with scrolled stone bearing the initials W H (William Heveningham), with an eroded datestone above. Both the ground floor and first floor of the returns include four-light openings with ovolo-moulded pine frames set within rendered openings with quoined jambs, pediments and pulvinated friezes, and casement latches matching those of the north façade.

The rear wing to the left of the left return is a 19th-century addition executed in 17th-century style, possibly a rebuild of an earlier wing. It is constructed in Flemish bond with English bond to the plinth, roofed in plain tiles, and comprises two bays of two storeys. The first bay has openings similar to those of the left return of the front range, though the first-floor opening lacks a pediment. The second bay includes a single-storey porch to the right with crowstepped gables; the entrance is framed by a semi-circular headed rendered arch with quoined jambs, imposts and keystone. The returns feature leaded bull's-eye openings with rendered surrounds. The doorway itself has a run-out quarter-circle chamfer stops, and contains a pine door with four vertical panels. The first floor above has a two-light opening matching the first bay. The south return of the wing is crowned with a crowstepped gable and features openings similar to those of the left return of the front range, though the ground-floor casements extend close to the ground. The gable contains a blank brick bull's-eye opening. An external chimney stack with a 19th-century shaft rises from the rear, matching the style of the main range, and an integral stair turret is positioned within the angle between the front range and the wing.

The rear of the main range is roofed in plain tiles, with 20th-century brick facing applied to the timber-frame of cells three and four. An outshut of 1½ storeys spans bays one and two, dating to the 18th century, constructed in brick with a sawtooth cornice and pantiled roof.

Internally, the front range retains its complete timber-frame. The roof is of three-tier construction with butt purlins that are staggered to bay one, and has no bay partitions. An enclosed stack occupies the ground-floor gable end of bay one, and a large fireplace serves bay two at the chimney bay; the original stair to the rear of the chimney bay at ground-floor level has been removed. A replacement stair rises from the middle light of bay two and features a 17th-century octagonal newel with run-out chamfer stops, with various chamfer stops also visible to the bridging beams of the front range. The trusses of the first-floor gable ends have braces that are thinner than the ties. Turned balusters decorate an oak dogleg staircase located within the 19th-century stair turret. The beams spanning the centres of bays two to four are fitted with jewel stops.