Duckings

Former ironmaster's house, later farmhouse, now house, located in Withyham. Built in the mid 16th century, originally constructed as a timber-framed building with plaster infilling. The structure was underbuilt in brickwork around 1800 and underwent reworking with refenestration circa 1911 and further 20th century window replacements. The building features some sandstone and Flemish bond brickwork to the ground floor, tile-hanging to the gables, tiled roofs and brick chimneystacks. The plan form is a modified H-plan with double crosswings, a central Hall and Hall Chamber on the first floor.

The north-west entrance front presents two storeys and attics with three windows. It displays a close-studded first floor with plastered infill and a moulded bressumer to the jetty, underbuilt around 1800 in Flemish bond brickwork with grey headers. The projecting end gables feature tile-hung attics with small casement windows with leaded lights. The first floors have jowled corner posts. Ground and first floors contain four or five-light wooden casements with leaded lights, and the first floor retains the outline of an original window. Two doorcases with moulded wooden surrounds are present: the left side one with a flat arch and the right side one with a segmental head, both containing plank doors.

The south-west side is tile-hung on the first floor and brick on the ground floor, with one casement window with leaded lights on each storey. The principal external feature is a large projecting brick chimneystack with black diaper work and sandstone quoins, accompanied by a pair of ribbed brick chimneystacks.

The south-east front comprises two storeys and attics with a 3:6:3 window arrangement. The upper floors are tile-hung and the ground floor shows some exposed timberframing, though mostly brick. The ground floor of the eastern gable side is sandstone. A central projecting sandstone chimneystack and projecting end gables are present. The western gable was truncated from the original 16th century plan during the 18th or 19th century when the building became a farmhouse; this section had collapsed by the date of the 1843 Tithe Map. All windows are wooden mullioned or mullioned and transomed casements. The eastern gable has a brick chimneystack across the apex.

The north-east front has a tile-hung first floor and brick ground floor with a 20th century gabled dormer and casement windows with leaded lights. A rainwater head dated 1737 is present.

The central ground floor room, the original Hall, features a wide sandstone fireplace eroded on the left side by knife-sharpening and a wooden bressumer bearing a mark for the attachment of a cooking crane. The south-western ground floor room, originally the Parlour, has a four-centred arched stone fireplace with plain spandrels and stops, and chamfered ceiling beams.

The south-eastern ground floor room contains 16th century ceiling beams and an elaborate stone chimneystack with a segmental arch featuring a shell keystone. The carved overmantel displays a coat of arms with a black lion on a gold background and a shield with a gold dragon, accompanied by a motto in old French reading "PAIS DE QUE DOIS ADVIENNE QUE POURRA". As this crest has no connection with the Baker family who built the house, it was possibly brought in circa 1911. Carved stone panels surround the south-west facing window, and the room is lined with early 20th century plank panelling. A wide semi-winder oak staircase with plain handrail provides access to the upper floors.

The first floor displays exposed timberframing including jowled corner posts. The attic contains a queenpost roof with purlins and original rafters. The central part of the attic features a number of curved tension braces.

Duckings was built by John Baker, a wealthy ironmaster, and is mentioned in his will dated 1555. It was likely constructed as a private house, Baker's business being conducted elsewhere, as a 1574 return to the Crown of all furnaces and forges worked in Sussex does not include Duckings. The Baker family married into the Sackville family, which was related to Anne Boleyn and produced later Earls of Dorset. A 1597 terrier shows the property in Sackville family ownership but leased to a yeoman tenant. By an Article of Agreement of 1706, it is described as "Duckings Farm". The Hall family served as tenant farmers here between 1684 and 1910. In 1911, the Eighth Earl de la Warr sold Duckings to Clement Burnett Weir. His wife Helen Elizabeth laid out the gardens in an Italianate style, which were further improved under the ownership of Eileen Ellinor Reviere between 1931 and 1954.