Will Ramsey finds it hard to imagine the run-down home that Highfield, our Property of the Month, once was, seeing it in all of today's splendour . . .

When you are renovating a property of this size, it’s as well to expect the unexpected, according to the current owners, who have restored Highfield to its original glory

Walking around Highfield – a grand, Grade II listed Victorian property – it is difficult to imagine the struggles the current owners went through to restore the house.

But when David and Elizabeth Taylor bought this ornate Driffield property in 2002, they had to repair years of neglect – and correct some baffling changes made to the house both during its years as a country club and the five years following its closure. Downstairs, a section of the panelling had been removed – with a chainsaw – and re-sited in the middle of the hall.

There were 14 separate leaks in the roof, which let in torrents during rainstorms, and the gardens were a “jungle” with brambles 10ft high.

“When you are renovating a property, particularly one this size, it’s as well to expect the unexpected,” said David, a china dealer. They had renovated their previous home, Station House, in Driffield, but this project was to prove something else altogether.

As we walk around the grounds which, after a concerted five-year effort are now a sweeping vista of lawns and shrub borders, David begins to point out the challenges they faced.

One of the strangest sights greeting the couple was the stairwell that leads from the garden down to the road – which had been completely filled with 25 tons of bottles.

“The pressure was so great it had bowed out the door,” said David.

“We had to destroy it, remove the glass into five huge skips and then have a new door made.”

But that seemed tame compared to the wilderness that filled the surrounding grounds.

“Everything was choked with ivy,” said David, as we follow the woodland walk along the edge of the stream and ponds.

“I spent days up ladders stripping it off all the trees.”

A tractor and power flail was brought in to deal with more than an acre of brambles and more than 60 tons of top soil were brought in to level parts of the grounds.

The two flights of fine, wide stone steps leading down to the different levels of the lawns – which were falling apart due to neglect – were dismantled and restored, as were two of the weirs, which create ponds in the chalk stream that flows though the woodland.

Today, the landscaped gardens complement the work which has transformed Highfield itself. Built in 1865 and remodelled by the eminent ecclesiastical architect Temple Moore in the 1880s, the 15-bedroom house has a grandeur which echoes some elements of church architecture as well as the Cheshire style of timber cladding.

Ornate plasterwork on the ceiling of the drawing room, left, includes the Yorkshire rose and birds in flight in the detail

In places, this influence is obvious – such as the stained glass windows in the panelled entrance hall, which show the four patron saints of Britain.

But elsewhere, you have to look a little closer. One of the most striking rooms in the property is the billiard room – a Victorian status symbol equivalent, these days, to a swimming pool – which is chapel-like with its high, arched, timbered ceiling and its minstrels’ gallery.

The simple styling of this room, large enough to easily accommodate a full-size billiard table and a pool table, is contrasted with the opulence of the main living areas on the ground floor. Of particular note are the dining room and drawing room.

Accessed from a wood panelled hallway, which is embossed with carved faces, these rooms have extraordinarily ornate plasterwork on the ceilings, featuring, in the drawing room, details including the Yorkshire Rose and birds in flight.

“We’ve had ceilidhs in here,” said David.

“Apart from being a magnificent family home it’s the perfect house for entertaining large groups of people.”

At the centre of the panelled drawing room is a huge stone fireplace, decorated with columns and intricate fan-light designs.

“The grooves were so full of layers of paint that it took one man three months to strip the walls and panelling in this room,” David said.

“We took out a ton of paint in bags.”

The billiard room is one of the most striking rooms in the property with its high, arched, timbered ceiling and its minstrels’ gallery

There’s further opulence in the dining room, which also required careful restoration. For a start, the oak door and surrounding panelling had been cut out and installed 10ft away up the hallway. And the obsession with paint had extended to the grand stairwell and landing with the ornate pillars, panels and arches, all coloured pink.

“There was also an obsession with false ceilings,” said David. “In certain parts of the house all natural light had been blocked out.”

But there was always a great sense of space in the house – which is followed through into the network of bedrooms and bathrooms on the first and second floors, some of which have the art deco tiling which can also be seen in the servants’ quarters downstairs.

In fact, two of the main bedrooms are so large that when St Francis Preparatory School, Nafferton, held its sports day in the grounds and was rained off, one – a function room at the time – became the indoor arena.

These upstairs floors also illustrate the structural challenges the couple faced, with the extensive re-tiling work needed on the roof.

“Before that, if it was raining and you were taking a bath, you’d find yourself getting a natural shower as well,” said David. Now, after seven years in the property, the Taylors are moving on.

“With the children grown up and moving out, we’re downsizing,” said David.

“It would have to be really, wouldn’t it? If we were to upsize, it would be Castle Howard next.”

Highfield, Windmill Hill, Driffield, is on the market priced £995,000 with agents Carter Jonas. Call: (01904) 558200.