Highnam Court

Highnam Court is a country house of Grade I importance, originally built in 1658 for W. Cook and substantially altered and extended over the following two centuries.

The house is constructed of English bond brickwork with ashlar dressings and artificial stone to some openings, beneath a slate roof. The main block presents a nine-window garden front of two and a half storeys, two rooms deep, with a single-storey wing extending across the back to the east for four windows, and a two-storey service wing to the rear, five windows long.

The garden front is symmetrically arranged with a slightly recessed five-window centre. Stone quoins mark the angles. The centrepiece features a pair of double French doors with a semi-circular single-pane fanlight, flanked by stone pilasters carved with swags and fruit in high relief. Above these stands a projecting keystone and a broken, scrolled pediment enclosing a coat of arms with baroque surround. On either side are four sash windows of six panes with the centre panes widest, set in moulded stone surrounds with pulvinated friezes; end pairs have flush panelled doors below. Above runs a moulded string course, followed by 20-pane sashes with the lower sash smaller, set in moulded stone surrounds beneath a cornice. A central stone niche with shell head and moulded architrave contains a female statue, originally believed to have occupied this position. The eaves are wide and moulded on consoles with a box eaves gutter; the hipped roof rises to a central lead flat. Five dormers punctuate the roofline, the outer ones with 16-pane sashes and lead cheeks beneath segmental-headed roofs, while the central dormer is a two-light casement cut into the roof at its foot. Panelled stone chimneys with moulded caps rise at the centre rear and on the ridge at the ends.

The entrance front features on the left a tetrastyle portico in antis with unfluted Ionic columns and rusticated piers, approached by three stone steps with nosings. The pediment above carries mutules. Behind the porch, a rendered wall is lined as ashlar, with double three-panel doors up a stone step, flanked by narrow panelled pilasters with consoles supporting the cornice above. Two-pane sashes with moulded surrounds sit at either side. To the left of the portico, a plain brick wall with plinth is punctuated by rusticated piers flanking a chimney breast and stone quoins at the angles. A dentil cornice runs the length of this elevation with ball finials at the ends; the chimney is supported by consoles at its foot and has a moulded cap. To the right of the portico, a moulded plinth precedes two semi-circular headed sash windows with marginal lights, their surrounds carved with fruit and leaves in high relief and topped with a decorative keystone bearing a shield, all executed in reconstructed stone. Rusticated piers sit between and to the right of these windows, each topped with an urn. The service wing projects to the right.

The rear wall of the main block contains scattered windows: a Venetian sash window in a recess with elliptical head and stone surround; to the right, a recess with semi-circular head and stone surround, above which an earlier line of quoins rises, marking an infilled original recess. The eaves, roof, dormers and chimneys match those of the front elevation.

The interior retains panelled shutters to windows in the main rooms of the ground and first floors facing the garden and adjoining walls. The ground floor corner rooms have six-panel mahogany doors, and the end rooms feature moulded dados. The entrance hall contains a four-leaf door to the Music Room, each leaf with three panels and dummy fielding, and sliding three-panel doors to the Billiard Room wing. A marble fireplace surround and moulded plaster cornice ornament this space. The Music Room beyond features moulded surrounds to panelled doors, a coloured marble fireplace, and walls decorated in high relief with musical instructions within rococo surrounds. The Gold Room continues with moulded door surrounds and anthemion and urn cornices above. Its marble fireplace surround is supported by caryatids with leaf carving above; a marble buffet opposite carries caryatids and a gilt-framed mirror. A high-relief rococo plaster ceiling displays lion, eagle, dolphin and phoenix figures at the corners. The central room facing the garden features segmental arches to recesses flanking the fireplace, each with fruit and leaf carving. The fireplace itself has a wood surround and overmantel with terms at either side, and carved panels said to be 16th-century after Dürer, set within a 19th-century frame bordered by figures of a bishop and priest. A moulded cornice crowns the composition. The Green Room to the left of the garden front contains a marble fireplace with rococo carving; behind it is a room with an 18th-century fireplace surround and dentil cornice.

The main stairs, dating to 1772-73, comprise a cantilevered stone stair around an open well with shaped soffits to the treads and decorative iron balusters, set upon a stone floor with black inserts. The moulded handrail culminates in a wreath at the foot. A passage on the first floor features arches supported by Tuscan pilasters flanking a Venetian window with keystone to the central arch, and an ornate dentil cornice. Older stairs, largely of stone for the bottom four treads and wood above, form a dogleg with heavy turned balusters, moulded string and handrail, square newels with ball finials pendant below. Bolection moulding frames the doors of the old stairs and the panelling beside them. An elliptical timber arch with strapwork carving spans the first-floor landing. The first floor contains two rococo-carved fireplaces at the east end and two Adam-style fireplaces at the centre. Some two-panel doors remain in the attics. The cellars feature heavy chamfered ceiling beams with bar stops.

The earlier house on this site was burned during the Civil War battle of 1643. The architect of the present house is unknown. The house underwent major alteration and reorientation in the 1840s under Gambier-Parry, when it was turned round, the single-storey wing added across the back, and the early 19th-century service wing extended. The Billiard Room was added in 1869. The original entrance faced the garden before these transformations. The structure was altered in the 1760s and 1772 for J. Guise and in the 19th century for Sir B. W. Guise. Further works were undertaken circa 1840, in 1855 by L. Vulliamy for T. Gambier-Parry, and in 1869 by J. Brandon for the same owner.

Highnam Court represents an important example of a mid-17th-century house with fine rococo plasterwork in two principal rooms. It forms a significant group with its associated garden features and the nearby church.