12 High Street

A house of mid-18th century date with later additions and alterations.

The building is constructed mainly from coursed river cobbles, some roughly dressed, with some hand-made brick and stone dressings. It has brick end stacks and pan-tile roofs.

The original plan comprised a central entrance with a single-depth range and stair against the rear wall. The building was extended in at least two phases to form a double-depth house with the stair repositioned to the centre.

The west front elevation presents a roughly symmetrical composition of two storeys and three bays. The central entrance features a six-panelled door with a relatively simple rectangular overlight containing a pair of hexagonal panes, set within a stone surround of ashlar quoins with a lintel bearing a simple keystone. Flanking the entrance are matched canted bays with turned colonnettes at the angles, retaining hornless sashes. The three first-floor windows have exposed sash boxes and horned two-over-two sashes. The openings are finished with simple wedge lintels and cills in stone. The roof incorporates a stone slate eaves course and coping to the south gable, supported by a shaped kneeler. The stacks, with the northern stack being shared with Number 14, have been rebuilt above roof line.

The south gable of the front range is more roughly built than the front elevation but features rough stone quoins. The course of the flues is marked by 18th-century brickwork. The gable is otherwise blind except for an inserted doorway to the left. Adjacent to this, within the rear wing, is another doorway fitted with a late 20th-century timber-gabled porch roof. Beyond this is a 24-pane bow-fronted window with a stone ashlar plinth and cill. The heightening of the rear wing is clearly marked by a change in stonework from roughly coursed, mainly undressed river cobbles to more neatly dressed, sized and coursed stonework above. The two windows here feature two-over-two horned sashes beneath brick flat arches.

The east gable of the wing is blind. The upper floor is quoined in brickwork, with brick also used for the flues. The end stack above the roofline does not appear to have been recently rebuilt. The verge is raised and stone-coped but lacks kneelers. Edwardian infill to the north of the wing employs re-used brick and rubble stone with scattered fenestration, mainly two-over-two horned sashes and a low-pitched lean-to roof. Above this, within the main roof, sits a flat-roofed dormer window lighting the top stair landing. Extending eastward from the northern end of the elevation is a single-storey range of former outbuildings, rebuilt to form a utility room. This is largely stone-built but includes early 20th-century stock brick.

Internally, the house retains a range of period features including simple timber architraves and mainly four-panelled doors. The canted bay windows to the front have shutters, and the front south room has a large wall cupboard retaining doors. The ground-floor room in the rear wing features iron hooks in the ceiling and a floor of red and black tiles. The staircase is a straight flight between walls; irregularities in the rear wall mark the position of a former stair window blocked by the Edwardian infill. The landing balustrading is simple and potentially largely original. The three ground-floor fireplaces have all been altered.

Of the four upstairs fireplaces, three are probably original and contribute to dating the building's phases. The north bedroom features an 18th-century hour-glass hob grate set in a timber surround. The rear wing fireplace is a highly decorative 19th-century round-arched design with an integrated mantel shelf, all formed from a single cast-iron casting. The infill room, now forming the bathroom, also has a single cast-iron casting but in an Art Nouveau-influenced design probably dating to the early 20th century. The timber surround and mantelpiece to the remaining bedroom fireplace in the front south room may be original, though its cast-iron and tiled fireplace is modern.

The roof structure retains a pair of simple trusses that may be original, though jack rafters and purlins are mainly modern.

A tall garden wall extends forward from the south gable of the front elevation, featuring an arched stone ashlar pedestrian gateway closed with a boarded door.