Highfield

Highfield is an 1865 villa constructed of brown-red brick with brown-yellow brick dressings and a slate roof with deep eaves. The building is two storeys high, with a three-window front and paired rear wings. Ridge stacks are present, along with hipped north end roofs and north end stacks, the stacks having paired brick shafts. The roof has a painted eaves soffit with carved brackets and open pedimental end gables.

The main brickwork features unusual sunk panelling flanking the main window bays, edged in yellow brick and divided by a raised yellow brick stringcourse that continues across the facade. The south front has cambered headed tripartite windows, with slate sills, yellow brick heads, sashes below, and casements above, incorporating arcaded top-lights. The central window is particularly complex, with an elliptical arched upper section within a rectangular sunk panel framed by raised yellow brick. It features a keystone, tripartite glazing with top-lights, a slate sill, and a double band of yellow bricks with six sunk square panels between. The ground floor entry is similarly framed in a sunk panel, with a triple arcade of yellow brick on two iron columns (now encased in wood), a broad centre arch, and narrow side arches. An inner recessed porch leads to half-glazed double doors with narrow side lights. End gables have similar sunk panels and some patterned brickwork. Cambered-headed casement pairs are present on the first floor, while the east end ground floor has a blank cambered-headed window, and the west end features a large canted bay with a bracketed cornice and sashes.

The rear wing’s west side has sunk main walling, except for an angle pier, plinth, band, and eaves course. It incorporates narrow arched inner windows on each floor and a cambered-headed outer window with a casement pair above and a triple casement below. The rear wing’s east side has similar cambered-headed casements on each floor. The north end walls include some rubble stone, with a recessed centre partly infilled by a later addition.

Inside, the rear stair hall features a stair curving in plan with stick balusters. The south east room has a fireplace constructed of green and black marble. Some plasterwork in a neo-Adam style, dating to around 1900, is found in the south west room and hall.