The Old Mint House and Mint Cottage, Pevensey, East Sussex

Summary

Hall, detached kitchen and house, originally built in about the early to mid-C16 as detached buildings but joined by a cross-wing and link range to form a single complex in the late C16 or earlier C17. Two lean-to outshuts were added in the late C18 or early C19 followed by several additional ranges and extensions in about the mid-C19 and early C20.

Description

Hall, detached kitchen and house, originally built in about the early to mid C16 as detached buildings but joined by a cross-wing and link range to form a single complex in the late C16 or earlier C17. Two lean-to outshuts were added in the late C18 or early C19 followed by several additional ranges and extensions in about the mid C19 and early C20.

MATERIALS: timber-framed with later brick and stone casing to the ground floors, red hung-tile to the first floors, red brick chimneys and red tile roof coverings.

PLAN: originally constructed as three separate two-storey buildings: an earlier-C16 hall of four-bays arranged so that the hall occupied the three eastern bays on the ground and first floor with a separate room on each floor to the west; an earlier-C16 house of three-bays immediately to the east of the hall (called Mint Cottage in 2021); and a detached kitchen to the rear of the hall of three-bays with a rear aisle. A single bay cross-wing was added to the eastern end of the hall, abutting the house and creating a continuous street front, in the late C16 or earlier C17, and a two bay link-range was built to the rear of the hall to adjoin it to the detached kitchen. Additional divisions and flooring subsequently added internally to the buildings. Single-storey lean-to outshuts were added to the north side of the hall and the east side of the kitchen range in the late C18 or early C19. These were followed by single-storey extensions at the north-west of the hall and the north of the house (Mint Cottage) in about the mid C19 and early C20.

EXTERIORS: the timber-framed buildings are located adjacent to Pevensey Castle with the south elevation forming the main street front facing High Street. It is now one long continuous composition of eight bays, comprising: the earlier-C16 jettied hall at the west, the gabled cross-wing at the centre, and the earlier-C16 house (Mint Cottage) to the east. The timber frames were probably originally in-filled with daub panels but the ground floors are now cased in brick (rendered at the east) and the first-floors are faced in hung tiles interrupted by square-headed casement windows with leaded lights. The hall has a ground floor comprising, from left to right: a four-light leaded casement window, three-light leaded casement, a low pointed segmental-arched oak doorway, a single casement, and then a bay window and another matching doorway. On the first floor are four casement windows. Next is the single-bay cross-wing, which is not jettied but has canted bay windows to the ground and first floor and a tile-hung gable end. The C16 house (Mint Cottage) is three-bays long and has a pair of leaded casements flanking an oak doorway to the ground floor and three two-light casements to the first floor. At the east and west ends of the buildings the elevations are blind (without openings) but there are tall brick chimney stacks rising above the level of the rooflines which are hipped at each end; a further chimney stack rises through the centre of the roof just to the west of the gabled cross wing. The east elevation of Mint Cottage is built of coursed flint with ashlar quoins and attached to the rear is an early-C20 lean-to outshot with plate glass casements and fixed windows.

The late-C16 or earlier-C17 link range extends from the eastern end of the rear of the former hall of the Old Mint House. It is a gabled two-storey building with a ground floor cased in stone and brick (partly rendered) and a tile-hung first floor beneath a tiled roof. There are later casements to the ground and first floor, variously of diamond leaded lights and two-over-two panes. Beyond the link range is the mid-C16 former detached kitchen range. It is of similar construction with brick, flint and squared greensand stone walls to the ground floor, a tile-hung first floor, and a hipped tiled roof which contains a dormer at the rear and a tall brick chimney stack rising through the centre. There are casement windows with leaded lights and plate glass to the ground and first floor. Adjoining the eastern end of this range is a late-C18 or early-C19 lean-to outshot with a three-over-three pane fixed window.

At the western end of the rear of the former C16 hall is another late-C18 or early-C19 lean-to outshot containing a two-light leaded casement and a later-C20 timber-boarded door that opens onto a rear yard. Adjoining the north-west corner are two extensions: a mid-C19 brick single-storey gabled range, two bays long and a single bay wide, containing two three-light casement windows; and an early-C20 single-storey hipped-roof range. The latter is also two bays long by one bay wide. It is built of brick, covered in hung tiles and has leaded casement windows.

INTERIORS: the earlier-C16 hall (The Old Mint House) is built of four bays with principal posts supporting tiebeams and crossbeams, and has a jettied first floor of central-girder construction supporting joists which span across the building. The easternmost bay of the hall was truncated when the cross-wing was built. There is a mixture of swelling, splay-cut and straight jowls at the heads of the principal posts. The ground floor is now divided into one main room at the west with a smaller room opening off a vestibule and a front hallway. The walls are largely lined in oak wainscoting, probably added in the C19 or early C20, but elsewhere the timber frame is visible with some later-C19 or earlier-C20 replacement timbers. In the main room is an elaborate wooden fireplace, perhaps fitted at the same time as the wainscoting. It has atlantes and lions supporting a wooden overmantel in which is carved an Elizabethan court scene. Immediately beneath the overmantel is a panel carved with soldiers, lions, scrolls and foliage decoration. In the eastern room is a brick fireplace and chimney piece. Close inspection of the surviving timbers, much of which have been re-used (see History), indicates that the ground floor of the original hall was formed of one heated main room to the east and a heated inner chamber to the west, originally separated by daub panels and a chimney. The front inside wall retains, from west to east: a pair of original window jambs containing peg-holes from a removed window cill; evidence for one extremely long 2.8m window formerly closed by a sliding shutter; and traces of a pair of centrally-placed openings closed by sliding shutters in the eastern bay (Martin and Martin 2018: 11). The rear wall was built of large panels infilled with lathe and daub, incorporating bracing. Although hidden internally by the wainscoting, one ground floor panel is visible within the north-west outshut and incorporates a long footbrace rising to the westernmost principal post. At the same level within the next bay is the jamb and truncated cill of a centrally-placed un-glazed window, whilst further east are two isolated sections of large daub panels. The ceiling joists remain visible throughout and have chamfered lower edges. The first floor of the hall, now reached by a staircase in the link range, also originally had a small chamber at the west and heated main room at the east, both open to the roof. It is now divided into three rooms opening off a corridor on the north side with wooden floors and wooden-boarded doors with wrought-iron strap hinges, wooden latches and bolts. The ceilings were added in the late C16 or earlier C17 (but most likely early in this period) and are of central girder (also known as an axial or bridging beam) construction. All the girders are stop chamfered but vary according to the status of the rooms: those in the westernmost chamber are of stepped-and-hollowed type, those in the next chamber are simple cyma stops, and those in the eastern chamber are of barred-and-hollowed type. One of the principal posts in the north wall of the first floor of the hall is a reused medieval timber and has a splayed-cut jowled head and a quarter roll running the entire height of the western leading edge. Also visible in this wall are the mortices for an unglazed first-floor window which incorporated diamond section mullions. The westernmost room incorporates comb decorated daub beneath plaster on the interior of the west wall and a painted scheme added in the late C16 when a first-floor fireplace was also inserted into the chimney. The decorative scheme shows similarities with a painted scheme at Shelleys, Lewes, East Sussex (see Martin and Martin 2018). The roof of the hall is of paired-rafter-and-collar construction and incorporates large scantling re-used, soot-encrusted, rafters as well as smaller scantling halved-on collars that are un-sooted and were purpose cut for the present roof.

The cross wing originally housed a parlour on the ground floor and first floor. Both rooms were heated by a chimney (since rebuilt) constructed between it and the main range and have panel framing to the walls. Besides the front windows, there was originally also a window in the front gable and one at the north end of the east wall of the first floor. The ground floor includes early-C17 wainscotting (though some of this has been refitted) concealing the original panels, including upper fielded panels carved with lozenge patterns containing foliage decoration. These incorporate a narrow closet door fixed closed which coincides with a closet which has been blocked since the mid-C19 at the latest. This ground floor room has a brick fireplace with a timber surround and overmantel featuring stippled carving showing the biblical hooking of leviathan (Book of Job 41), as well as elaborate strapwork that includes paterae, foliage, ionic capitals and other decoration. The ceiling joists have chamfered lower leading edges terminated by stops. The first floor is now accessed via the main hall corridor. It retains its original flooring, original panels and ceiling joists with chamfered lower edges terminated by cyma stops. An iron brace has been added in one corner and strengthening bands applied to the girder. The fireplace is surrounded by later fielded panelling. A 1920s photograph shows traces of wall paintings in this room, which may still survive beneath the present paintwork. The roof structure is of clasped-side-purlin construction, framed in two bays with windbracing. The gables incorporate collars with queenstuds beneath, whilst the central truss has a raking queen strut.

The link range is of two bays with panel framing to the walls. It originally incorporated a centrally positioned passage, linking the front range to the rear kitchen range, and providing access to a small courtyard at the east. In the re-entrant angle is a small room with a tiled floor and fireplace, which has had the partition walls removed so that it is now open to the adjacent passage. On the opposite side of the passage is a timber staircase with a winder and straight flight and another ground floor room. The first floor has a single chamber, which contains a window in the west wall of three-pane ovolo design, and has ceiling tiebeams with chamfered leading edges with cyma stops. There was originally also an attic room accessed via another staircase (since removed). The roof is of clasped-side-purlin construction with a collar truss at the south end and a collar and queenstud truss above the central tiebeam and northern truss. The latter is daub infilled and comb decorated with an interlaced figure-of-eight design below the collar and an abstract design above it.

The former detached mid-C16 kitchen range was originally of three bays with a rear aisle, comprising a central kitchen with an open fire (as in an open hall), an eastern chamber with a storage loft that overshot the kitchen, and a small western room with a further chamber above. However, the ground floor is now divided into two large rooms; a western room with a large inglenook fireplace and an eastern room that is open to the roof. There is an original arcade separating the main body of the building from the rear aisle. The western room has a paved stone floor and a fireplace constructed of ashlar sandstone blocks patched in brick where two oven openings have been blocked. It was fully floored over in the late C16 or earlier C17, the ceiling being supported by two girders with stop-chamfered lower leading edges. The eastern room took its current form in about the later C18 or early C19 when the lean-to was added and a series of changes were made: the original east wall was removed; the ground floor paved in brick and stone slabs incorporating a stone well and a handpump; the first floor removed; the external walls rebuilt; and the eastern hip of the roof reconstructed. A wooden staircase with a winder and straight flight leads up to two chambers above the western room which are open to the roof with a further stairs to the attic above the link range. The clasped-side-purlin roof is framed in three near-equal length bays with none of the roof trusses positioned above those of the main frame. It is a hipped roof with collar trusses and wind bracing.

The lean-to outshot on the north side of the hall contains a short corridor providing access through to the rear yard, which is flanked by one large room at the west and a winder staircase at the east leading to an attic vestibule and store. The mid-C19 gabled range that adjoins the lean-to contains two bathrooms and a kitchen. Further west is the early C20 range which contains two store rooms.

Mint Cottage was not inspected internally but contains a large open-plan living area on the ground floor with an open fireplace and a modern bathroom and kitchen to the single-storey lean-to at the rear. A staircase leads up to a landing and two bedrooms on the first floor; the eastern room contains a large open fireplace.

EXCLUSIONS
Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the C20 brick buildings with gabled roofs covered in corrugated metal to the north of the former detached kitchen, and the late-C20 bathroom and kitchen fixtures and fittings and late-C20 ticket window in The Old Mint House, are not of special architectural or historic interest. However, any works to these structures and/or features which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require Listed Building Consent (LBC) and this is a matter for the Local Planning Authority (LPA) to determine.

History

The Old Mint House, also known as Ye Olde Mint House, stands opposite the main east gate into the outer bailey of Pevensey Castle; a Roman fort that later developed into a medieval castle with a timber-framed great hall and a stone keep. There is a local tradition that a mint stood on the site in the Norman period and that The Old Mint House was the residence of Andrew Boorde (c1490-1549), a physician who may have attended to Henry VIII and Edward VI, in the mid-C16 but this is uncertain (Wilkins 2000, 20-23 (taken from Jinks 1935)).

An archaeological survey of the buildings was undertaken by Martin and Martin in 2018 (see Sources) and the following summary history is largely based on that account. The survey indicates that the continuously jettied timber-framed building that fronts onto the High Street was built in about the earlier C16 as a hall and/or warehouse (hereafter described as just ‘the hall’). It was constructed with re-used timbers that are considered to have been derived from the hall of Pevensey Castle, which is recorded as having fallen into disrepair from 1485 and having been pillaged for material from at least 1548 until after 1573. The hall building fronting onto the High Street is four bays long with a chimney built against the west wall and an untrussed paired-rafter-and-collar roof. Internally, it originally comprised a ground-floor three-bay meeting hall or warehouse with a single-bay inner room to the west; an arrangement repeated on the first floor which was open to the roof. Comparable halls have been identified at Knightrider Street, in Maidstone, Kent, and adjacent to the church and Parsonage in Old Eastbourne, five miles south-west of Pevensey.

Adjacent to the hall another building fronting onto the High Street was also built in about the earlier C16 (now known as Mint Cottage) (Martin and Martin 2018, 4). It is three bays long with a paired-rafter-and-collar hipped roof and now has a chimney built against the east wall.

In about the mid-C16 a timber-framed detached kitchen was built to the rear of the hall. It is three bays long with a rear aisle and a clasped-side-purlin roof. Internally, it had a central kitchen originally open to the roof which also undershot a first-floor chamber at the east, and a ground-floor room at the west with a chamber above it on the first-floor. This tripartite kitchen building is one of the largest (if not the largest) of those known to survive in East Sussex.

Several additions or alterations were made in the late C16 or earlier C17. The earliest of these was a single-bay timber-framed cross-wing added to the eastern end of the hall, extending the structure to abut against the adjacent building (Mint Cottage) to the east (Ibid, 6). At the rear of the hall a two-bay link range was built to adjoin it to the kitchen building. There were also some alterations to the existing structures: the kitchen room was fully floored over and a chimney inserted with an inglenook fireplace; the hall was altered by dividing up the main room on the first floor into two rooms with an inserted corridor, a chimney was removed, a fireplace inserted into the first-floor western chamber and ceilings added at first-floor level so that it was no-longer open to the roof. Decorative painted schemes were also added to some of the buildings. By this period the complex appears to have, at least in part, taken on a domestic role as a dwelling.

Documentary records show that in the C18 The Old Mint House was owned by John Breden senior, a merchant, and John Breden younger, a shopkeeper. John Breden (?senior) served as bailiff of Pevensey and is mentioned in the diary of Thomas Turner (1729-93). The Old Mint House subsequently passed to two brothers; Pryor Breden and John Breden, and then Sarah Breden. In about the late C18 or early C19, a lean-to outshut was added to the western end of the rear of the hall and another lean-to outshut to the eastern end of the kitchen range, the eastern end of which was also encased in stone and the first floor removed within this bay. An additional partition was added into the hall at first floor level, dividing one of the chambers in two, and the chimney was reconstructed.

The 1839 tithe survey shows that by this time The Old Mint House had passed from Sarah Breden to William Breden Fowler by marriage and was occupied as a dwelling. It was for a period at least partly in use as a brewhouse. Historic OS maps show that between 1839 and 1872 there were several further additions: a gabled range was added at the north-west of the lean-to adjoining the former hall; another range was added at the north-east corner of the former kitchen building and a small addition was made at the south-east corner; a small addition was also added at the north-west of Mint Cottage. At around this time the street elevation of the buildings fronting onto the High Street and western end wall of the former hall were underbuilt in brick at ground floor level and brick partitions were inserted into the ground floor of this range. In 1908 to 1925, there were further extensions to the buildings; another range under a hipped roof was added at the north-west corner of the former hall; a range added to the north side of the former kitchen building; and, a series of additions added at the eastern side of the complex to form a rear courtyard surrounded by buildings. From about this time until the early 2000s, the entire site traded as one of the largest antique emporiums in England. After the emporium closed the eastern street-side building was sold off separately from the rest of the complex and The Old Mint House and its associated buildings stood vacant for a decade before being sold in 2018.

Reasons for Listing

The Old Mint House and Mint Cottage, Pevensey, originally built in about the early to mid-C16 with later additions, are listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a large complex of predominantly C16 timber-framed buildings which survive with a substantial amount of original timberwork, including an earlier C16 hall of a form that is considered rare in East Sussex and a detached C16 kitchen building that is one of the largest known to survive in East Sussex;

* the main range contains medieval timbers which are considered to be derived from the timber-framed hall of the adjacent scheduled Pevensey Castle;

* for the quality of the surviving timberwork including the roof structures, finishes, and the surviving late C16 or earlier C17 wall paintings, comb decoration and carved panelling;

* an archaeological survey indicates that the constructional details of the hall chimney may be relatively innovative whilst the roof structure of the detached kitchen is also considered an innovative design for East Sussex.

Historic interest:

* as a relatively high status C16 hall and detached kitchen situated next to Pevensey Castle which demonstrates some 400 years of history and development.

Group value:

* with the adjacent scheduled Pevensey Castle.

External Links

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