Court Farmhouse

Former manor house of Battle Abbey, dating from the 14th to 15th century with significant later alterations, particularly in the late 18th or early 19th century. Two 19th-century wings with pyramidal roofs extend to the north of the medieval hall.

The building is constructed of flint rubble walls with stone dressings. The west wing was originally partly or wholly timber-framed. Later brick dressings and lacing courses were added, and the first floors are tile-hung. The roofs are plain tile with hips to the flanking cross-wings.

The plan is H-shaped, comprising a former hall in the centre with two cross-wings: a west wing of three bays and a probably slightly later east wing of five bays. Two through passages run through the building. The house was re-orientated to the east in the late 18th or early 19th century, when the first floor of the west wing was converted to a granary.

The five-bay east elevation of the east wing features stucco on the ground floor. The first floor has four triple sashes with glazing bars and a single sash with glazing bars in the centre. Four similar windows below, with the inner two containing half-glazed doors in their centre lights. A central doorway with a fanlight featuring radiating tracery is topped by a six-panelled door with the top four panels fielded. The south elevation of the hall, with its roof descending low, features tile-hanging and a three-light attic window with a sloping roof, beneath which sits a ground floor triple sash with horns and glazing bars. To the left is a 19th-century six-panel flush door with the top two panels glazed, providing access to the through passage.

The south elevation of the west wing shows flint at ground floor level with brick lacing courses. The north elevation of the west wing has ground floor flintwork with brick, incorporating a brick and flint stair with a dog kennel rising to a ledged door. The first floor is tile-hung timber-framing that projects on massive joists.

The interior retains a two-bay former open hall with a cross-passage formed in the lower west bay. Two original doorways survive, one with fragments of original masonry. The upper east bay of the hall retains 14th-century stone rere-arches of hall windows in both north and south walls. The roof features open trusses with massive crown-posts carrying heavy four-way head braces on a cruciform plan.

A Tudor floor was inserted featuring a massive stopped and chamfered beam with chamfered joists, and a great chimney with chamfered bressumer. A south-west stair with an octagonal wooden newel and finial was also inserted.

Two bays of the three-bay west wing comprise a solar or first-floor chamber with an open truss and an ogee-headed opening to the hall space above the screen.

The five-bay east wing features crown-posts with moulded caps and bases supporting a former first-floor chamber of exceptional size. A south-east ground floor room retains an early 19th-century reeded fireplace surround with paterae and two semi-elliptical arches on columns. 19th-century straight baluster stairs are present. Ledged and four and six-panel doors are found throughout the building.