Highfield House, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire

Summary

Suburban villa, built in 1863 in a Gothic revival style in brick and stone by Bellamy and Hardy.

Description

House, built in 1863 by Bellamy and Hardy.

MATERIALS: Built of brick with stone dressings and slate roof.

PLAN: The house is square in plan, with an entrance corridor opening into a square central stairwell and hallway. Rooms are arranged to open off the central hall, with service rooms and a subsidiary staircase to the north side of the building.

The first floor has a similar arrangement, with bedrooms opening off the central stairwell. The subsidiary staircase extends to a garret.

EXTERIOR: The house is built in a Gothic revival style, in red brick laid in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings. The principal (south) elevation comprises rectangular windows under moulded labels. At first floor level are a number of oriel windows with Gothic tracery. The two floors are separated by a moulded string course. The gable of the westernmost bay faces south, adjacent to a projecting, two storey gabled porch with angle buttresses and a doorway under a four centred arch. East of the porch is a gable dormer. The west elevation is dominated by a projecting gabled bay containing a two storey bay window. South of the projecting bay is a projecting flue containing a small window and date stone at first floor level. North of the projecting bay is a wooden conservatory and a small wooden oriel window. As with the south elevation, first floor windows have Gothic tracery while ground floor windows are rectangular under labels and the storeys are separated by a moulded string course. The north and east elevations are less decorative, with no string course and plain, rectangular fenestration. The east elevation contains an external flue pierced by windows at ground floor and first floor level.

Highfield House has a steeply pitched slate roof with a glazed wooden lantern topped with an ornate iron weathervane.

INTERIOR: The interior of the house is arranged around a large central hallway accessed via a corridor with two scallop headed niches and ornate coving. The central hallway contains an open well staircase with quarter pace landings and iron balusters. Under the stairs is a brick and limestone fireplace in an oak surround with a neo-Classical overmantel. The entrances to the main reception rooms are marked by deep wooden doorcases with open-topped segmental pediments. At the top of the stairs, two arched doorways flank a niche.

Principal rooms on the west side of the building have plasterwork ceilings and picture rails. The central room has a brick fireplace in a neo-Classical marble surround and a scrolled plaster sopraporter depicting three putti. The principal room to the east is wainscoted and contains a fireplace with stone surround. The mantel shelf is supported by half arch consoles resting on Purbeck marble colonettes. Above the fireplace is a window, indicating that the fireplace must vent to a flue to the side, rather than the rear.

Upper floor rooms are coved, with plasterwork ceilings. Bedrooms at the south east and south west corners contain fireplaces directly underneath windows. Both these windows pierce external flues, indicating that the fireplaces must vent to the side of the window.

History

Highfield House was built in 1863 by Bellamy and Hardy in an area now known as Highfields. The house was built for a Mr Burton and was listed as being occupied by Frank Merewether Burton FGS in 1896.

The house was built within a substantial garden or park and is illustrated on the Ordnance Survey 1:2500 1st Edition (1887) with an almost identical footprint to its current footprint. Between 1956 and 1970, the eastern half of the garden had been sold for housing and a second house, Rowen House, built in the remaining garden.

A number of greenhouses were built at the same time as the house. One was demolished during or shortly after the 1940s, while the other remained until the late 1980s. A conservatory was built onto the west side of the house in the 1960s.

Bellamy and Hardy was an architectural practice founded in Lincoln by Pearson Bellamy and John Spence Hardy in 1853 and active until 1887. They designed a number of public and commercial buildings, several of which are represented on the National Heritage List for England.

Reasons for Listing

Highfield House, constructed in 1863 by Bellamy and Hardy of Lincoln, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as a good example of a mid-C19 gothic revival suburban villa with a well-balanced composition and high-quality stonework;

* the building appears to be little altered and retains original features including fireplaces and principal stair with decorative iron balustrade.

Historic interest:
* as an example of the domestic architecture of Bellamy and Hardy of Lincoln, a practice better known for public and ecclesiastical architecture with a number of buildings on the List.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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