High House

High House is a substantial Renaissance farmhouse, likely dating to the 17th century. The house is faced in painted render and has an exceptionally high, steeply pitched slate roof. Massive rendered chimney stacks, with square bases and four tall, diagonally set flues, are positioned centrally on each roof slope. The main facade is a symmetrical gable front facing south. The upper gable is blind and is flanked by the large chimney stacks. The lower gable projects forward to create the two-and-a-half-storey entrance front, which has a monopitch lean-to roof. This roof has three 20th-century rooflights and is hipped, with the slope of the hips carried back on each side to blend with the main roof. The first floor has three two-light mullion windows with 2+2 pane casements. The ground floor features an impressive single-storey gabled porch, flanked by three-light sunk chamfer mullion windows – the window to the left has 2+2+2 panes, and the one to the right has 6+6+6 panes. A timber-framed pediment above the porch features an unglazed wooden oculus and an ornamental pendant dated 1675. Elaborate carved dentil decoration adorns the bargeboards and door head. The door jambs have reserved panels with enriched decoration, including a disc with arabesques in relief. The inner entrance doorway has an elaborate surround, illustrated by Peter Smith, featuring complex ovolo and ogee moulded jambs and run-out stops with arcaded flats. The ornate inner door has two square panels, each framed by a deep double moulding enclosing fielded panels decorated with a circular pattern of radiating segments. Lozenge-shaped panels with similar decoration are incorporated into the top, middle, and bottom rails. A western elevation displays first-floor casement windows with six 6-pane casements, stone sills, and ground-floor casements of a similar design—to the left and 20th-century double-doors to the right. The north gable has lead aprons to the upper windows. The upper gable has a six-pane window, and the lower gable has three 6+6 pane casements. Additional fenestration on the north gable includes a six-pane window at the top, three 6+6 pane casements below, a single casement to the left on the first floor, a large square centre window with four fixed panes, and a 20th-century bay window to the left and 20th-century double-doors to the right. The interior layout is characteristically double-pile, with a centre staircase flanked by fireplaces which divide the front and back ground floor rooms. A particularly fine dog-leg staircase dated 1675 includes a chamfered newel post with scroll stops, splat balusters, and a carved ornamental band on the outer face of the string.