CIVIL AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE 



The following are exceptionally good examples : East Mascalls, near Lind- 

 field, rebuilt c. 1580, with very rich details ; Broadhurst, in the same neigh- 

 bourhood ; Otehall, Wivelsfield ; Pax Hill, near Lindfield, a large house, 

 dated 1595; Horseshoe Farm, Beckley ; Shoyswell, near Ticehurst ; 'The 

 Well House;' ' Little Dixter '; ' Brickwall ' all in Northiam, of various dates, 

 but chiefly late sixteenth century, the last a very fine large timber house, 

 with an ancient garden of clipped yews ; Strawberry Hole, Northiam ; Yew 

 Tree Farm, Beckley ; Walshes, near Rotherfield ; Mayfield village especially 

 the 'Middle House,' dated 1575, with a highly ornamented gabled front and 

 richly carved barge boards ; Lye Green, Withyham, a good farmhouse ; Rye, a 

 very architectural building known as ' The Hospital,' with good details in 

 doors and windows, and other houses ; Hastings, houses in All Saints' Street^ 

 &c. ; farmhouses in and near Sedlescombe, one dated 1604, with a fine brick 

 chimney ; East Grinstead, the Judges house and others, with good gables, 

 windows, chimneys, &c. ; Kenwards, near Lindfield, the residence of the 

 Chaloners ; Horsham, North Street, and houses on the Causeway (note gable- 

 ends purposely tilted out of the perpendicular) ; near Horsham, Hickstead 

 (the manor-house of the Stapleys), and Chesworth, with moat and chapel ; 

 Midhurst the central streets have many fine old houses and shops of 

 timber and brick of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century dates, some of them 

 dated ; a pent-roof to shelter the ground story shop is quite a local feature ; 

 Moor Farm, near Petworth, 1580, with fine panelled rooms and fire-places ; 

 Petworth, many old buildings. Besides these, a very interesting group 

 around Warnham and Horsham deserve special mention : Bailing Hill, 

 Hill Farm, 1578 (with good oriel windows), Hookers, Randals, Stone Farm, 

 End's Place, Westons, Lenaways Farm, the Town House, Slinfold (with good 

 early sixteenth-century mullioned windows), Friday Street, Warnham, and 

 Groomhall, near Broadbridge Heath. These are all good examples of timber 

 construction, with many interesting details. Hooker's Farm retains the 

 typical |Bf shaped plan, having a central body or hall, and double-storied 

 wings. The space in the centre is arched over with curved braces, so as to 

 give deep overhanging eaves. 



This plan of the smaller timber-built country-side house, which unites 

 the picturesque with the practical, seems to have originated at an earlier 

 date than any of the surviving examples. Perhaps the oldest instance we 

 can point to in Sussex is the fourteenth-century clergy-house at Alfriston, 

 referred to above, and the type continued in use throughout the fifteenth and 

 sixteenth centuries. Originally, and in most cases during the earlier part of 

 this period, there was no wall fire-place and chimney, but a central open 

 hearth in the body of the hall, which, it should be remembered, was open to 

 the ridge of the roof ; the wood smoke finding its way out at the eaves, or 

 through crevices in the roof. To facilitate its egress the windows were un- 

 glazed and shuttered openings. The floor was of lime, or stone slabs, covered 

 with straw. Access to the upper stories of the flanking wings was at first 

 obtained by a mere ladder. External staircases were also used, and still 

 remain in a few instances, as at Friday Street, Rusper, and 'The King's 

 Farm,' Roffey, near Horsham. The floor of the upper story in the end 

 wings was constructed of heavy oak joists, 6 in. or 7 in. wide, by about 

 4 in. in depth, with rounded ends externally, framed into a diagonal beam, 



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