page_title: High House, Purfleet
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: High House, Purfleet / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Restore bread oven
context_page_description: High House is the collective name for a group of historic buildings in Purfleet, Thurrock, Essex, which was used as a farm for hundreds of years, with a Grade II listed house and barn, but with the addition of one of the best dovecotes in Southern England, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and notable for its nest box array. This property includes the house, coachman's cottage, chaise house, stable, granary, barn, workshop, cart sheds, dovecote, and inner and outer walled gardens. Known by many names in its past, the farm has been called Le Vineyards, because grape vines were grown on one of its south facing slopes. Its current name comes from the fact that it is a house high on the hill, which commands great views over the River Thames.
context_section_description: High House was originally built between 1552 and 1559 by Cecily Long to divide the Manor of West Thurrock, in Essex, equally between her two daughters. First built in timber and later replaced in brick in 1684, evidence remains of the Elizabethan timbers that are part of this early house in the fabric of the surviving 17th-century building. In fact, parts of the original panelling from the Queen Anne house were re-used in the later construction.
  The house was a high-status farm, as an inventory of 1615 describes a gallery with armoury and a dining room with paintings, and the garden having a sun dial, garden benches and a statue. Architectural detail seen in the stable indicates the degree of quality, wealth and status that the occupants of the house commanded.
  The dovecote, a hexagonal building used to house doves, was a sign of wealth and prosperity. It would have been used to supplement the house kitchens with dove eggs and dove meat. In near-complete condition, this building still retains the internal wooden ladder used to reach all 517 nest boxes.
  During the 16th and 17th centuries, the house had cherry orchards, and grew other crops, pumpkins being the last crops to be harvested at the house in the 1950s in front of the dovecote. Caleb Grantham, who owned the chalk pits and lime works and also worked for the East India Company, left his life at sea to become director of London Assurance from 1744 to 1756 and whilst in Thurrock lived at High House.
  Development in West Thurrock, originally from the chalk industry and later from a wide variety of industries, gradually decreased the size of the land owned and farmed by High House, but it was the Purfleet bypass which signalled the end for High House as a viable farm in the traditional sense. After the bypass's construction, the farm was first converted into a private school, and later flats, until it closed and lay empty for many years.
caption: Original bread oven
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