High Coxlease

High Coxlease is a small country house, dating to 1898 and designed by W R Lethaby for Thomas Eustace Smith. It is now used as a school. The building is constructed of brick, colourwashed on the entrance front, and has an old plain tile roof. It comprises a two-storey, three-bay centre range with two-bay-wide crosswings projecting on each side, and a service wing of three bays with a projecting gable on the entrance front, and two bays, the end one gabled, on the garden side. The front elevation features a porch of open front in the centre of the main part, with walls each side topped by a wide cornice that rises over the front as an arch. Above the porch is a low-pitched hipped lead hood, overhanging all round. Window openings on the ground floor include cross-windows in the crosswings. On the first floor, there are two-light casements. The crosswing to the right has a large cross-window to the staircase, visible between the floors. A heavy moulded cornice runs beneath the kneelered gable wall of the central part, with a projecting cruciform section gable stack above. The left crosswing has an offset plinth and, on the ground floor, a three-light segmental head casement and a two-light casement, with two more on the first floor. The garden front features 24-pane sashes with louvred shutters to the crosswings, and an irregular crenellated band at first-floor eaves level. The right-hand side of each crosswing has a tall side stack. The centre part has a gable, with three tall arched openings, the arched portion divided from the rest. French doors are in the centre, with 18-pane sashes on each side, and fanlights above. A Palladian window is positioned on the first floor within the gable. Internally, many original features remain. Corridors run behind the entrance on both floors. The library, located in what was formerly the drawing room, has two levels of windows and a large fireplace.