Listed Building: HIGH HOUSE (286524)

OTLEY HIGH HOUSE LANE TM 25 SW (North side) 8/111 16/3/66 High House - II* Manor House. Mid C16. Probably built by a member of the Gosnold family which owned the land. Timber framed with colourwashed render and brick with plain tiled roof, perhaps originally thatched. Two storeys with attic. L-shaped plan. Road front: brick walling to the ground floor where the jetty has been underbuilt. Doorway at right of centre which has a 4- centred head with fern and flower motifs to the spandrels. The door has moulded muntins and lintel. Three-light casement to right of this and a 5- light range at left with a further 5-light window to the far left. The first floor has 2 five-light and 2 four-light casements and one 3-light window below the stack. All these windows are C20. To the attic are two 2-light hipped dormers and there is a ridge stack at left of centre with 6 clustered octagonal flues with cogged heads. Left hand gable end: close studding with arched braces and brick nogged infill. To the ground floor is a central 6-light C20 mullioned window and at either side are 4-light casements. The first floor is jettied with a moulded bressumer and supported by curved brackets. The walling here has arched braces. The gable was also formerly jettied as revealed by mortice holes for the brackets and the sawn-off wall plates. Right hand side: gable end of the main range at left with a projecting central C20 staircase turret with a hipped roof and an outshut to its right hand side. Two-light window to ground floor level at left of the turret and a 2-light attic window at right. Extending to the right is a later lower wing which has at ground floor level two 2-light, a 3-light and a 5-light casements with a doorway at right of centre. The first floor has a panel of close studding with an arched brace and three 5-light casements to right and a 3-light window at left, all with diamond-section mullions. Rear: the gable end of the later wing is at left with two ground floor 2-light windows divided by a king mullion and at first floor level an 8-light window. Close studded gable with a 2-light casement. The right flank of this wing has a 4-light, a 3- light and two 2-light casements, all C20 replacements with diamond-section mullions. To the first floor are three 5-light windows and a 3-light and a 4-light window, all with diamond-section mullions, some of which have been replaced. To right extends the axial range which is close studded with brick nogged infill. This has, to right of centre, a staircase tower with a bowed end to accommodate the spiral stair. At mezzanine level is a window of 4 lights. The right flank has a blocked doorway with 4-centered head and there is a 2-light window to first floor level. The left flank has one 4-light ground floor window. At right of the tower are two further blocked doorways with 4-centered heads to ground and first floor level, indicating that a further wing probably projected here. To left of the turret is a ground floor hall window of 6 lights which falls low and has moulded mullions and at left of this is a window to the upper walling of 9 lights. The first floor has a canted oriel at right with a heavily moulded sill, 4 central lights and single lights to the angles. To left of this are a 2-light and a 5-light window, also with moulded mullions. Interior: the dining-room has a massive chamfered ceiling beam and chamfered joists with die-out end stops. The hall has a crossed arrangement of richly-moulded heavy beams. The cross-axial beam is supported on jowled wall posts, the jowling having brattished enrichments from which spring arched braces connecting to the beam. The joists have double quirked beads. Cambered chimney bressumer with a series of roll moulds and ribbon and floral motifs to the top. The sitting room has 2 moulded cross beams with a dragon beam extending through to one corner. Similar double-quirked joists to those seen in the hall. The staircase turret has a centre circular newel post to the winder staircase and its original treads. The newel diminishes by broaches to an octagonal body, with a moulded, stepped cap. One first floor room has a cambered ceiling with a crossed arrangement of beams and 3 slender axial beams with joists that have quirked beads. Wall posts with arched braces. Four-centred doorheads to most first floor rooms, mostly of C20. One further first floor room has a 4-centred arch to the fireplace with moulded surround and stepped end stops. Red plaster overlays the brick and is grooved in imitation of brickwork with fine lines of white plaster bedded into it creating an impression of immaculately laid gauged brick. All the rooms in the axial range have close studded walling. The first floor of the later wing forms one large room of 3 bays with massive jowled wall posts carrying arched braces which connect to the cambered tie beams. Central chamfered beam and plain joists. The house has several features in common with Otley Hall, Otley (qv) also built by the Gosnold family. Listing NGR: TM2123454940