Pelham House and wall to south

Pelham House is a house dating from the 16th century, with substantial additions from the mid-18th century and early 19th century. It is constructed of red brick, with some rendered sections. The roof is slate, hipped, with a moulded wooden eaves cornice and four central brick stacks, paired. A central flat-headed dormer is present on the north front and three on the east front.

The north front has a U-shaped layout. It is two storeys and attics, with a regular seven-window front. The central three windows are set within a deep, narrow, rendered recess and feature a large, arched staircase. The windows are glazing bar sashes. The recess is filled on the ground floor by a central doorway with a panelled door, arched reveals, a wreathed and radiating fanlight, a moulded architrave, a flat cornice hood, and a pulvinated frieze. A large cast-iron lamp is fixed to curving brackets above the door. Extensions from the 20th century are visible on the ground floor to the right of the main house.

The east front is rendered on the right and red brick on the left, with a moulded stone cornice to the left only. There is a slight projection to the left of centre and a deep projecting wing to the extreme left, terminating in a blank end.

The south front is two storeys and attic, with a deep moulded cornice. It has a five-window front, with deeply projecting wings and shallow canted projections in the centre and in the re-entrant angles with the wings. The windows are glazing bar sashes, set in moulded surrounds. Those on the first floor are slightly deeper in the centre, and those in the outer bays of the ground floor have triangular pediments. Wide arched stuccoed panels on the ground floor of the canted projections contain tripartite French sashes. A central entrance has glazed doors within an arched surround with a fanlight, all set within a moulded frame topped by a triangular pediment. Additional entrances are present in the re-entrant angles of the projecting wings.

The interior staircase is a single flight with a quarter-turn at the foot, featuring plain balusters, cast-iron newel posts, and a wooden handrail with a wreath at the foot. The hall is divided from the vestibule by double columns. A committee room (formerly the dining room) features carved panelling from around 1579, with wood panelling, fluted Corinthian pilasters, a low cornice with carved heads and herms, a 18th-century stone chimney-piece, and a double arcaded wooden overmantel with fan lunettes bearing the arms of the brothers Henry and George Goring.

The house was built for George Goring, who also commissioned Danny at Hassocks, suggesting Pelham House could be an earlier work by the same bricklayer. The building served as the headquarters of East Sussex County Council until 1968.

A flint wall, 30 yards long and 12 feet high, extends south from the south-east corner of the east front. It is constructed of flint with red brick bands and buttresses, topped with brick, flint, and stone coping.