Bulls House

Bulls House, Henfield Road, Cowfold

A house dating to around 1600, later subdivided into two cottages during the 18th century, and now restored to single ownership. A 1960s western extension of no special interest was added in the 1960s.

The eastern part of the building is timber framed with red brick infilling, though the south end is entirely brick and the north elevation is rendered with tile-hanging above. The roof is tiled, half-hipped to the south and gabled to the north, with an end brick chimneystack to the north and a catslide roof to the rear. The building has two storeys with six irregularly spaced windows.

The original plan form was a two-bay end chimneystack house with a heated room on each floor. The east or entrance front shows exposed box framing with midrail and brick infill of various periods, including 17th-century two-inch bricks, 18th- or early 19th-century stretcher bond brickwork, and some 20th-century patching. The first floor has six windows: two early 20th-century casements with glazing bars to the upper part only and four 1960s bottom-opening casements. The ground floor contains two early 20th-century casements, a 1960s window, and two 20th-century plank doors, the left-hand one adapted into a window. The north side is of brickwork. The south side is rendered on the ground floor and hung with 20th-century tiles above, with a first-floor 1960s casement and a plain doorcase below.

The west or rear elevation originally had brickwork and a catslide, but the south end wall of the catslide has been removed to form a loggia. The 1960s two-storey western range conceals most of this elevation. The link block is weatherboarded to the ground floor and weatherboarded above with a roof sloping to the east and casement windows.

Internally, the ground floor of the original east wing retains a northern room with an open fireplace with wooden bressumer, a spice hole, and a wooden gun rack. A plank door to the east probably originally led to the staircase. An axial beam and exposed floor joists are visible. The upper floor retains much exposed wall frame with midrail, internal partition, jowled posts, and a queenpost roof. Further plank doors survive on the upper floor.

The original 1600 house was adapted into two cottages in the 18th century. Both Bulls House and Bulls Bridge House are shown on the 1891 Ordnance Survey map. In 1959, the building was listed as Bulls Bridge Cottages grade II. During the 1960s, when the two cottages came into single ownership, the large modern extension was built and the name changed to Bulls House.

The building retains special architectural interest for its surviving 17th-century timber frame substantially intact, the readable original two-bay end chimneystack plan form with open fireplace to the ground floor and heated chamber above, visible frame details including 17th-century plank doors and a gun rack, and the external evidence of later subdivision into two cottages shown by the survival of two doors on the east side.