William Duesbury

Explorer Tom Stafford's Ancient High House is so heavily timbered it looks as if the whole street has drawn a frame around it. Built for the Dorrington family around 1595, this tall Tudor town house now lets you wander through rooms from several centuries, with a royal wartime visit tucked into its story. Stafford Borough Council calls it England's largest surviving timber-framed town house. King Charles I and Prince Rupert stayed during a brief visit in 1642, as the Civil War approached Stafford. Today the house has a Civil War room, a Stuart bedroom, later decorated rooms and a display explaining its construction. The upper floor houses the Staffordshire Yeomanry Museum, while changing exhibitions bring in more local objects and artists. I took one look at the beams and decided the builder must have owned shares in the timber trade. That is a mischievous guess, not a fact. What you can see is a practical, ornate structure that has adapted repeatedly without losing its Elizabethan bones. The rooms are a chance to ask what each later generation kept, covered or made fashionable again. Even a grand house has to survive the tastes of its occupants. The council runs the house as a public museum on Greengate Street. Historic steps make access difficult for people with severe mobility limits, so check its current information and ask staff about your needs before travelling. Look at the street-facing frame, then go in and compare it with the rooms behind. The outside makes a bold promise; the inside has the stories to keep it.