Sands

Sands is a timber-framed house, likely built between 1450 and 1485, representing a Wealden hall-house. It was originally constructed as an open hall, which was later ceiled over. Around the mid-16th century, a chimney was inserted, and a porch was added to the rear of the house, reversing its original aspect. The windows were replaced in the 20th century.

The building is timber-framed with close studding and plaster infill, with the southern portion rebuilt in brick. The 16th-century porch is box-framed with brick infill, mostly painted, and it is covered by a hipped Horsham slab roof with gablets. Brick chimneystacks are clustered centrally and positioned at the ends of the building. The house has two storeys and four windows. The front features wings with projecting first floors and a recessed centre supported by brackets. The left-hand side elevation retains close studding and displays the frame of a garderobe and the tenon of a bracket that once supported it. The rear elevation retains the original window frame for the hall window. A projecting, two-story porch features a molded beam above the original porch door.

The interior plan reveals a former open hall of two unequal bays, with a single jettied bay at the upper end and two bays jettied over the lower, or service, end. Original 15th-century post and panel screens remain, along with remnants of molding on the screen and an arched entrance with crenellated spandrels to the chamber and a roll-moulded dais beam. There are arched doors for the buttery and pantry, and the original doorway to the stairs still exists. The interior also features an inserted 16th-century ceiling with chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, and similar floor joists. The original Horsham stone floor is present. The roof shows three crown posts; one was removed when the 16th-century chimney was inserted, with sooted pargeting on the hall side of the solar/hall division and unsooted plaster between the crown post and principal rafter to the west side above the original solar.