The Ditchling that the Tudors knew
By Ian Mulcahy
This article first appeared in the June 2020 edition of
Tudor Life, the
magazine of the Tudor Society
Old Britain Home | Historic curiosities of Ditchling
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Ditchling is an East Sussex village, close to the border with West
Sussex, located in the South Downs National Park. Better known for its
nearby Beacon, which hosts an Iron Age hill fort and is the third highest
point on the South Downs at 248 metres (810ft), the village is first
documented as 'Dicelinga' in a grant made by King Alduuf in 765
concerning land bordering the village. It is later recorded that its
Manor and land were held by King Alfred the Great. With all that in mind, Ditchling seemed like the perfect destination for a 2 or 3 hour walk on a sunny July day so, following a little bit of a homework and a 40 minute drive, I parked the car behind the village hall, gathered my notes, my camera and a bottle of water and set off to explore. Starting in West Street at the knoll in the centre of the village, our first building of note is the small, flint faced, Parish Church of St Margaret, the nave of which predates the Norman Conquest. Additions were made to the church in the late 1100s (south aisle), 1260 (the chancel and the tower), 1300 (the south chapel) and in the early 1400s (the south porch). In common with St Margaret’s in West Hoathly (see the January 2019 edition of Tudor Life) the church was gifted to the Priory of St Pancras in Lewes. In the case of Ditchling, the gift was made by William De Warenne in around 1090. In 1538, during the dissolution, and also in common with the church at West Hoathly, the advowson of St Margaret’s was granted to Thomas Cromwell and, following Cromwell’s death in 1540, was passed to Anne of Cleves who remained the avowee until her death in 1557. At West Hoathly the right was then returned to the Crown, but in Ditchling the advowson was first passed to Cardinal Pole, the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury. In December 1564 Sir Richard Sackville, the first Lord Lieutenant of the County of Sussex and at the time the sitting MP for Sussex, became the avowee, but this right was short lived as, in February 1565, the right was granted to the Chancellor of Chichester Cathedral who retained it until the mid-nineteenth century. 
The Parish Church of St Margaret
Opposite the entrance to the church is Wings Place, which was originally named Ditchling Garden Manor and is also known as Anne of Cleves House. Described by Allan Fea in his book Old English Houses, The Record Of A Random Itinerary (1910) as ‘a charming medley of Tudor stone, brick and timber construction, quite unique’, the Manor itself was one of five in the parish and dates back at least as far as 1095, when it was first documented as forming part of the Priory of St Pancras which leads us to the conclusion that the manor was also gifted by William De Warenne following the Norman conquest. The building currently on the site is of archetypal Tudor vintage with timber framing and jetties aplenty. Local tales tell of a 19th century vicar recalling parishioners telling him that the house was built by Alfred the Great in the late 9th century or William de Warenne’s wife in the late 11th century. Whilst these tales are fanciful it is probable that an earlier building stood on the site and it is certainly possible that the current building contains walls of that earlier building and uses its foundations. The entrance porch is of medieval origin and was either brought here from another site or is a visible remaining part of the older building, perhaps forming an entrance to a courtyard. It is known that the current house was originally larger, and extant part was the western wing of the house. After the dissolution, and once again in common with a property in West Hoathly (The Priest House) the ownership of the property initially followed that of the advowson of St Margaret’s, being firstly in the possession of Cromwell before being subsequently handed to Anne of Cleves following the annulment of her marriage to Henry VIII, though like the Priest House, she never lived here. Following Anne’s death the property reverted to the Crown under Elizabeth I. Interestingly, given the ownership of the property at the point of the dissolution, the property has a well-used priest hole and local legend says that the upstairs rooms were used to conduct secret Catholic services. Within 20 years, the property was owned by Lord Abergavenny who gifted it to Henry Poole as a dowry following Poole’s marriage to his daughter Margaret. Having since served time as home to William Pitt & The Duke of Wellington, a grocers, a drapers and a public library, by the mid 1800’s the building was home to several families, suggesting that it had been subdivided. It was restored to a single house in 1936. Most recently, Wings Place was home to locally born radio DJ Jamie Theakston who bought it in 2004 to ‘fulfill a boyhood dream’ before selling up in 2015. 
Wings Place (Anne of Cleves House)
Walking back eastwards towards the crossroads in the centre of the village, the next Tudor property that stands out is the appropriately named Crossways, positioned on the corner of West Street and South Street. Built in around 1580 the house originally consisted of two bays, with a third added to the south very soon after the original construction. The northern gabled end of the building was originally jettied, but is now infilled. Note the little carved stone head underneath the window of the southern bay, the origin of which I have unfortunately been unable to ascertain. 
Crossways
Heading east from the crossroads along
Lewes Road, a ‘new’ turnpike road constructed in 1812, we almost
immediately come across Tudor Close, a 15th century
timber framed house at right angles to the road that would have
originally been jettied, but this has been infilled with bricks,
with the timbers of the upper floor hidden behind hung tiles. A
small section of timber framing can still be seen on the eastern
wall where the building joins the slightly set back 4 & 8
Lewes Road, (no number 6!) believed to be an early 17th
century structure and, if not quite Tudor in origin, most definitely
influenced by the architecture of the period. 
Tudor Close, 4 & 8 Lewes Road and 1 Lewes Road
Turning north into the High Street, one’s
eyes are immediately drawn to the imposing three storey 7 &
9 High Street, also known as Bank House. Built in 1573, the
building has been sympathetically restored and at the rear of the
building some roof structure can be found that has been dated to at
least 150 years earlier, which suggests that the building that has
been in place for the last 450 years was a rebuild of, or extension
to, a much earlier structure. To the left of Bank House is 5 High
Street, a building dating back to approximately 1600 which,
curiously, doesn’t have a statutory listing with Historic England.
The assumption must be that this is due to the way that the join of
3 High Street has been constructed, which isn’t really in keeping
with the character of its old neighbour. 
5, 7 & 9 High Street  Colstock and Woodbine Cottage
200 metres or so further along North End we
reach the area that was once seemingly the domain of the local
blacksmith. To the east of the road and is the steeply roofed late
15th or early 16th century Forge House, positioned
at right angles to the road whilst opposite on the western side is
the similarly aged Forge Cottage, where the jetty
and timber framing remain visible on the northern aspect, though the
rest of the house has been refronted and the jetties infilled. 
Forge House (1) & Forge Cottage (2 & 3)
Retracing our steps southwards, we turn left into East End Lane. Archaeology tells us that this area was the hub of the Saxon village, being part of the old route from the Iron Age hill fort at Ditchling Beacon into The Weald. In the 15th & 16th centuries the subdivision of the old medieval plots saw the lane transform from a widely spaced group of farmsteads into a village street hosting shops, tradesmen’s workshops and cottages. East End Lane remained a busy thoroughfare until the early 19th century when the Lewes Road was turnpike at which point it became a quiet back lane. A small number of the original buildings from the time of the subdivision still remain, and the first we arrive at is Brewers. At right angles to the road and much altered by a 19th century extension and a stucco rendering, hidden behind todays façade is a small timber framed two bay open hall house which probably dates to the early to mid 15th century. 
Brewers
Further down the lane on the southern side are the conjoined Forge Cottage & Twitten Cottage, a possible Tudor period timber framed building that has been tile hung and dressed with flint. It’s interesting that we should find a second Forge Cottage within 400 yards of the first; the demand for blacksmiths must have been high in the Ditchling area! Twitten Cottage is named after the path that the building is accessed from, ‘twitten’ being the Sussex word for a narrow path or alleyway that passes between two physical barriers. 
Forge Cottage & Twitten Cottage
Our next building of interest is Cherry Tree Cottage, a single aisled timber framed hall house of c.1400 with a double cross wing extension. Whilst the house is very pleasing on the eyes, I can’t help but feel a little sad that the house has been clad, partially in flint and partially in render, as I’m sure it would look magnificent with its timbers on display. Standing in the street looking at the way the cottage is set back from the road, it’s easy to imagine this being home to a tradesman’s family, with the owners or tenants working and trading out of a workshop set between the cottage and the highway. Our final point of Tudor interest in Ditchling, a little further along East End Lane just before its direction turns to the south, is Walnut Tree Cottage. This much extended 16th century timber framed building is another cottage whose undoubted Tudor charm has been lost beneath painted brick, flint and hung tile cladding, all of which was added in the 18th century.
Sources:
Text & photographs © Ian Mulcahy. Contact photos@iansapps.co.uk or visit my 'Use of my photographs' page for licensing queries (ground level photographs only). |
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