High House

High House is a house, formerly a dower house to Powderham Castle. It likely dates to the 18th century or earlier, with remodelling and extensions in the early 19th century when a cross-wing was added to the right end; the left end was truncated in the 1950s. The construction combines colourwashed plastered cob and stone rubble with 19th-century brickwork. The roof is slate, gabled at the end of the main range and hipped at the front of the wing, with end and rear lateral stacks.

The house originally had a double-depth plan, two rooms wide, with an entrance leading to a spine corridor containing the staircase. Principal rooms faced the front, while a kitchen and parlour were located at the rear. The early 19th-century cross-wing added a further principal room. A watercolour from 1799 depicts the house before the cross-wing’s addition, suggesting an L-shaped plan by the 18th century, although the main block may have originally been an earlier two-room and cross-passage plan house.

The cross-wing is likely contemporary with the verandah which extends along the garden front and returns to the left. In the 1950s, the left end was truncated, retaining part of the old end wall and the verandah as the end wall of a small, enclosed courtyard.

The garden front has an asymmetrical arrangement of three windows to the main range and two to the cross-wing. The main range’s front has a symmetrical early 19th-century five-bay verandah with a slate roof supported by columns. The front elevation includes four early 19th-century French windows with margin glazing, a blocked recess in the centre, and three first-floor windows with 12 panes and shutters. The wing has two larger first-floor windows with 12 panes and shutters, and similar ground-floor windows without shutters. The left return retains the early 19th-century five-bay verandah against a courtyard wall, which was formerly the end wall of the house. The present left end wall has a re-sited 19th-century panelled front door, two first-floor windows with 12 panes, and one 20th-century metal-framed ground-floor window. The rear elevation features three first-floor windows with 12 panes and shutters, and a probably Edwardian bay window lighting the parlour.

Inside, the two principal front rooms have been combined into one. Original features include shutters, a stick baluster staircase with a turned newel post, and Georgian panelling in the parlour, along with 19th-century chimney pieces. The owner possesses historical information about the house and its 1950s alterations, including plans. The historian Polwhele rented the house when he lived in Kenton.