The Abbey

The Abbey

Abbot's house, later private house. The Cistercian Abbey of Robertsbridge was founded by Alured and Alicia de St Martin in 1176. Buildings on the present site began around 1200, but the Abbot's House was the last to be constructed, possibly around 1225 in time for Henry III's visit, but certainly by around 1250. The building underwent sixteenth-century alterations after 1530 when it passed to Sir William Sydney, and around 1567 when it may have been adapted for Sir Henry Sydney's use following his marriage, at which point a T-wing was added to the south side. Further early nineteenth-century alterations were made.

The original range comprises an undercroft with a first-floor hall of stone rubble with some early nineteenth-century brick infill to the north-east and a tiled roof with three brick chimneystacks. The T-wing to the south has a half-hipped gable and is clad in weatherboarding; the east end is also clad in weatherboarding. The west elevation has a gable end with wooden bargeboards, and the upper part is tile hung. A large first-floor thirteenth-century hall window with arch and colonnettes is present, with a smaller three-light twentieth-century mullioned window set within it. A smaller thirteenth-century trefoil window is positioned to the right. The undercroft has two small Caernavon-arched windows. The north elevation has two sixteenth-century three-light mullioned windows, two other nineteenth-century mullioned windows, one stone buttress, and a triangular brick buttress. A Caernavon-arched doorway leads to the undercroft. The east side has a gable end clad with weatherboarding, incorporating a thirteenth-century wall that once formed part of the Cellarer's quarters, now converted into a lean-to addition. A tiled roof, external brick chimneystacks, casement windows, and a seventeenth-century three-plank door are present. The south front features a late sixteenth to early seventeenth-century addition clad in weatherboarding with a half-hipped gable. The first floor has a mid-nineteenth-century six-pane sash and other nineteenth-century casement windows. To the left is a smaller two-storey addition, also weatherboarded with nineteenth-century sashes and an early nineteenth-century six-panelled door.

A virtually complete five-bay early thirteenth-century roof structure survives, comprising three crown struts. These are differentiated from crown posts because there are no collar purlins, and the member rising vertically from the tie beam is tenoned into the collar. Almost uniquely among roofs of this type known to date, the crown strut does not reach the ridge; the only other known example is the nave of Chichester Cathedral. The crown struts are slender and octagonal with a moulded top and four head braces. Roll-moulding is present on the central beam. Above the moulding the crown strut is chamfered and rises nearly to the apex with two further collar beams spliced in. The fourth crown strut was removed when a brick chimneystack was inserted in the sixteenth century. The roof is a sans-purlin structure with most rafters original and two collars. Rafters are smoke-blackened, particularly to the west of the inserted chimneystack.

The undercroft comprises three double bays of quadripartite ribbed Caen stone with two circular stone columns and brick paving. A thirteenth-century stone staircase rises to first-floor level from a stone arch, with a similar stone arch to the outside. The ground-floor room to the east of the undercroft has a sixteenth-century sandstone fireplace with a wooden lintel. The ground-floor room to the south has a sixteenth-century fireplace, the lower part in sandstone but with a wooden lintel bearing a four-centred head and blank spandrels above. A studded plank door leads to the pantry. The first floor of the original wing has an east room with a sixteenth-century roll-moulded ceiling, a thirteenth-century trefoliated window with colonnettes, and a sixteenth-century open fireplace with a wooden lintel but stone below. The adjoining large room has a sixteenth-century four-centred arched fireplace with plain spandrels. Two stone arches have capitals with foliate decoration but are probably of around 1830 to 1840. The south wing has an exposed frame with midrail and jowled posts, a four-inch chamfered spine beam with lamb's-tongue stops, oak floorboards, and an oak winder staircase to the attic. The attic bedroom has a wooden fireplace of around 1830 to 1840, but the hearth is tiled with superlative-quality medieval tiles, either featuring geometrical patterns or depicting pike, running dogs, shields, fleur-de-lys, and other designs.