Priest'S House

Priest's House at Itchingfield

This is a pre-Reformation clergy house standing at the edge of the churchyard, later converted into almshouses and subsequently used as a vestry. The building is a remarkable survival of a small late medieval open hall house with later additions and alterations.

The eastern two bays date to around 1500, while the western bay was added around 1600. The building was partially refronted in the late 18th century. It is timber-framed with wattle and daub infill, partially refronted in brick. The roof is of Horsham stone slabs with a ridge brick chimney stack positioned between the central and eastern bays. The building has two storeys with irregular fenestration including a diamond mullioned wooden casement and casement windows with leaded lights.

The original plan consisted of a two-bay open hall with a possibly later sleeping platform at one end and an entry at the east end. The structure was extended westward by one bay with a smoke hood and a west end entry. Two later doorcases were inserted into the south side, one of which was later blocked.

The timber-framing of the two eastern bays uses thicker scantling and features pronounced curved tension braces dating to around 1500. The western bay has thinner scantling timbers, many of them sawn, with diagonal tension braces dating to around 1600. The north side includes a curved brace to the central bay with plastered infill, though the ground floor of the western bay was replaced with brickwork around 1800. The eastern bay has box-framing with a diagonal tension brace and an original diamond mullioned window to the upper floor. The east side is gabled with exposed framing to the upper floor, featuring queen posts and two curved braces. The corner posts have been sawn through at first floor level and rebuilt in Sussex bond brickwork with some grey headers. The upper floor and gable have brick infill. A doorcase with a plank door and gabled weatherhood on simple wooden brackets occupies the centre. The south side displays exposed timber-framing to the upper floor of the eastern two bays with two curved tension braces, partly with plastered infill and partly with brick infill. The western bay and ground floor of the eastern bay are of brickwork. Irregular casement windows with leaded lights are scattered across this elevation, with the ground floor left window having a cambered opening. A cambered opening in the western bay and a blocked opening in the eastern bay probably date from the conversion into almshouses. The western end has exposed timber-framing with plastered infill and diagonal braces, with an original doorcase at its centre.

Internally, the two eastern bays have a clasped side-purlin roof with queen struts and collar, with soot-blackened roof timbers. The eastern bay was an open hall with no evidence of a floor. The adjacent bay has a north midrail with evidence of a floor, though the absence of a partition up to the top of the wallplate suggests the floor may have been added later as a sleeping shelf. A pegged rail one foot below the wallplate indicates that the upper room was once lit by a window between the rail and the eaves. A brick fireplace was added around 1900 when the building became a vestry. There was never any internal access between the two ends of the building. The western end, dating to around 1600, was always floored and heated by a smoke bay constructed against the west wall of the earlier structure. This smoke bay survives intact with a timber chimney featuring end posts, a wooden bressumer, and a chimney interior of wattle and daub. South of the smoke bay is a wooden winder staircase. The ground floor has a brick floor. The original elm first floor survives with marks that may indicate a particular carpenter's yard. There is an original clasped purlin roof with windbraces to the west, and the west gable has a collar with a central strut.

The building's position at the edge of the churchyard suggests it was a priest's house, probably providing accommodation for a curate performing duties for an absentee rector. Terriers of 1615 and 1625 record a "parsonage house with barn, stable, garden and orchard", suggesting that at that time, and perhaps earlier, there was a much larger building serving resident rectors. An article published in 1898 stated the building was in use as a parish almshouse around 1830. In 1854 it was converted into a vestry, and the eastern part remains in use for this purpose. The western bay is currently unoccupied.

The building is of exceptional importance as a remarkably unaltered survival of a very small late medieval open hall house with Horsham slab roof, particularly for its rare complete smoke bay with timber and wattle and daub chimney in the 1600 addition, and as an example of the rare building type of pre-Reformation priest's houses.