Hoadley'S Farmhouse

House, formerly a farmhouse. The building probably dates from the late 14th or early 15th century. A smoke-bay and floor were inserted into the hall in around the 16th century, a stack was inserted into the smoke-bay in the 17th century, the service end was rebuilt in the early 20th century, and the property was extended in around the mid-20th century.

The house features large timber-framing, partly tile-hung on the first floor and partly tile-hung and brick on the ground floor. It has a steeply-pitched plain tile hipped roof with gablets at either end. There are two brick axial stacks: one with a short red brick shaft to the left (south) of centre, and a 19th-century brick axial stack towards the right-hand end.

The house is positioned on a north-south axis and faces east. The surviving original structure comprises a two-bay open hall (with the wider, higher bay at one end) and an unheated parlour to the left (south) with a solar alcove jettied at the left end. The right-hand (north) service end has been demolished. In around the 16th century, the wider, higher bay of the open hall was floored, leaving a smoke-bay behind the screens passage, with contemporary smoke-bay bressumer and ceiling beams. A brick stack was inserted into the smoke-bay in around the 17th century. The screens passage was subsequently blocked by a later partition behind the smoke-bay. A photograph from around 1880 shows the house without a service end; this was rebuilt in the early 20th century as a shallow single-storey structure. In around the mid-20th century it was heightened to two storeys, a small rear wing was added, and a porch was added to the lower right-hand (north) end. A main porch was also added to the front in around the mid-20th century, and the partition between the hall and parlour may have been removed at this time.

The east front is asymmetrical and two storeys, with a large 20th-century gabled two-storey tile-hung porch at the centre. All windows on the east front are 19th-century metal-frame casements with small panes, except for the first-floor window to the right of the porch and the ground-floor extreme right-hand window, which are 20th-century. The rear (west) elevation is asymmetrical with a 1:3 window arrangement, the left-hand section being set back as an early 20th-century addition. The windows are 20th-century metal-frame casements except for the ground floor left and first floor, which are 19th-century metal-frame casements with small panes. The first floor of the west elevation has exposed large framing with a tension brace at the right-hand end.

The left-hand (south) end is jettied out on the first floor on three curved brackets and is tile-hung. It has two two-light casements, the left-hand being 20th-century and the right-hand a late 19th-century metal-frame casement with small panes. The ground-floor windows are 20th-century casements.

Inside, the hall ceiling beams and smoke-bay bressumer are similarly chamfered and stopped with cyma stops, indicating they are contemporary. The inserted brick stack has a chamfered timber lintel to the fireplace with run-out stops. The partition between the hall and parlour has been removed, but originally had a doorway at the right-hand end to the parlour. Its bressumer (dais beam) has a cavetto-ovolo-fillet moulding on the hall side only. The parlour retains original rough joists, only three of which continue to support the jetty.

The two-bay hall has a crown-post roof. The relatively tall crown-post is square with wide chamfered corners (not octagonal), and the simple moulded cap and base are also square. The collar-purlin is trenched into the top of the crown-post, which has four square-section curved braces to the collar and collar-purlin but no braces at the base to the tie-beams. The chamfered cambered tie-beam (exposed in the hall chamber) has curved braces. The common rafters and collar joints are dovetail halvings. The roof timbers over the hall are complete and heavily encrusted with soot from the open hearth fire. The framed partition at the higher end of the hall has curved tension braces and wattle and daub infilling up to the apex; it is smoke-blackened on the hall side only. The roof over the solar retains some of its original collar-rafter structure but is not smoke-blackened. The lower end bay of the hall has an inserted smoke-bay of wattle and daub construction, blackened on the inside only, and inside the smoke-bay is an inserted red brick stack of mid to late 17th-century date.

A dwelling stood here in 1151 (according to Sussex Place Names) and the property was part of the Manor of Buckhurst until sold by the Earl de la Warr in the 1930s. Hoadley's Farmhouse provides a good example of an inserted smoke-bay and stack in an open hall, clearly illustrating the evolution of a small medieval house. Despite the loss of the service end and minor 20th-century additions, the house remains largely complete.