A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



which jutted out at the external angle and was supported by the curved corner 

 post and bracket, worked out of the butt end of a large tree, as at Stonehill 

 Farm, Chiddingly, the Star Inn, Alfriston, Stream Farm, Sedlescombe, &c. 

 The upper story of one end wing, or both, was thus made to overhang the 

 l cwer a n excellent arrangement constructionally and aesthetically, as, besides 

 giving shelter and shade to the lower story, the floor and wall weights were 

 nicely adjusted, on the principle of the cantilever, and additional space was 

 obtained in the upper room. This construction produced the recessed centre 

 part occupied by the hall or common room, and the roof being carried over 

 in an even line with curved brackets, forming a sort of arch, a very picturesque 

 effect was obtained, together with shelter from rain and sun. The tops of 

 all walls were well protected by the deep overhanging eaves. Brackets, or 

 'jutty ' pieces, were also used to support the overhanging floors, as at Rye. 

 The earlier window openings were usually very narrow, 8 in. to a foot in 

 width, and were commonly in groups of two, three, four or more, with 

 slender moulded mullions. In the simplest form these mullions are merely 

 square uprights set diagonally (the openings being, of course, unglazed), thus on 

 plan j O O C' as m a cotta g e at Poling. The width of opening in later 

 work, when glazing began to be generally used, is often increased to 1 5 in. 

 or 1 8 in., and the windows were often made to project as oriels on wooden 

 brackets. These are occasionally found in the earlier houses, as in the clergy- 

 house and the Star Inn at Alfriston. There are many excellent examples of 

 later date in houses at or near Warnham, Horsham, Petworth, and Midhurst. 

 Manor Farm, Lindfield, has a double-storied bay window. Iron casements, 

 often with scrolled cockspur fastenings, were in use with the later windows, 

 and the lead glazing, usually of diamond, but sometimes of square oblong 

 pattern, was secured to iron stanchions, set diamond-wise. The older external 

 doors of wood had arched heads (as at Alfriston clergy-house), each half of the 

 arch out of a solid piece of tree-spur. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth 

 centuries the flat four-centred arch was very commonly used, and lent itself 

 well to the material. The ogee heads to internal doorways at Alfriston are 

 a rare exception. The actual doors in most cases are of vertical planks nailed 

 to broad ledges, and hung with strap-hinges to iron hooks let into the solid 

 frames, but in later work (as at Rye Grammar School, Great Wigzell, Sale- 

 hurst, and the Middle House, Mayfield), they are frequently especially the 

 outer doors of panelled construction, or else of boarding laid upon a panelled 

 frame and having moulded fillets superimposed to cover the joints of the 

 boards, as at the hospital, Rye, the Brotherhood Hall, Steyning, &c. 



The projecting ends of the upper story floor-joists were in some cases 

 especially in the earlier examples covered with a thick moulded oak fascia, 

 as in houses at Rye, Udimore, and West Tarring. Sometimes a moulding is 

 tacked across a half-timber front. A wooden moulding, in section much like 

 the stone string courses then in use, runs beneath the oak-traceried window 

 of the early fourteenth-century timber house at Lewes. (See illustration, 



P- 385.) 



In yet smaller houses and cottages the plan was usually a plain oblong, the 



middle portion of which was occupied by the chimney corner, flanked by the 

 entrance lobby on one side and the stairs to the upper floor on the other. 

 The stairs are generally planned to wind round the chimney, and are closed in 



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