Higher Whitehall

Higher Whitehall is a house dating from the 18th century, which was remodeled and extended in the early 19th century. It features painted render over rubble with slate hanging on the right gable end and part of the south gable end of the wing. The roofs are made of dry Delabole slate, with rendered brick chimneys over the gable ends, a hipped grouted scantle slate roof over a slate-hung stair turret at the rear, and a 20th-century flat roof over an extension adjoining the turret to the west. The original layout likely consisted of a two-room plan with a stair turret and a kitchen wing attached to the northeast corner, along with a one-room extension, possibly truncated, on the left end (west) and additional service rooms at the rear, plus a 20th-century extension to the right of the rear wing.

The house has two storeys and a symmetrical three-window front, with a one-window addition on the left of the south front. All windows are 16-pane hornless sashes. The original three-window section on the right has a central doorway and porch with glazed French doors and sidelights, and there are projecting keystones over the ground floor window openings. The wing and rear also feature 16-pane sashes, and there is intersecting glazing in the pointed arched stair window.

Inside, the house retains much early 19th-century detail, including an open-well open-string stair with a wreathed handrail over the newel, a moulded and carved ceiling band with acanthus over the stair, and a ceiling band with a trailing rose in the right front room. Most openings have moulded architraves with corner blocks, along with panelled doors and window shutters. There is a tapered chimney breast on the plan between the right-hand room and the wing, which contains a now-blocked fireplace. Additionally, there is a further circular fireplace or possibly an oven, now blocked, in the east wall of the right room to the left of the surviving fireplace.

This house is said to have been the home of the Hornblowers, a family of eminent and successful engineers, including Joseph Hornblower, who was a partner of Thomas Newcomen from 1725 to 1745, and his sons Jonathan, Josiah, and Jabez. Jabez Hornblower was involved in a controversial court case regarding one of James Watt's patents.