Description

577-1/12/1043 PRESTON ROAD
14-DEC-10 PRESTON
(West side)
199

(Formerly listed as:
PRESTON ROAD
PRESTON
199
ACACIA HOUSE)

II
Detached mid-C18 farmhouse, now offices, with C19 and C20 alterations.

MATERIALS: Faced with squared, knapped flint, with brick and brick dressings to the quoins, openings and square-topped plinth. Within the principal façade above plinth level, the flints have been carefully selected, knapped square, and laid with tight joints so as to give a regularly coursed, black, shiny surface. The brick quoins are dressed using alternating 'blocks' one-and-a-half bricks and one-brick wide, each 'block' being three brick courses deep. The southern façade is not visible. Whilst the majority of the north elevation was rebuilt, enough original facing fabric remains to show irregular and mostly knapped flint nodules bedded in lime mortar. The original rear wall (now an internal wall) is of flint-faced masonry, with the C19 wall being faced in flint laid in courses with brick bands at every fourth course. Roof coverings to the front are slate whilst those to the back are tiled.

EXTERIOR: Two-storey, two-range, five-bay farmhouse. All roofs are pitched. The valley between the roofs is stopped off by means of tall parapet walls. The mid-C18 roof is of traditional standard assembly, being supported by wallplates and tiebeams. It is simply built using paired rafters linked by morticed-in collars. There is no ridgeboard. Running the length of the roof, halved over the top face of the collars is a central plate used to help prevent racking during construction. Nailed in near the floor of the rafters are ashlar pieces which support low lathe-and plaster-side walls of the garret rooms. At least two of the ashlar pieces are reused early C16 moulded mullions. A few of the rafters are reused and include medieval rafters halved for collars. However, the majority of the rafters and collars were newly cut for the roof. They incorporate carpenters' assembly marks, starting from the southern end, pairing the joints between collar and rafter. The C19 roof over the rear range is of stilted standard pitched form. On the eastern side the plate is located at the head of the wall and thus allows the garret rooms to be lit by windows looking into the hidden central valley. In contrast, the rear (western) slope extends down to garret floor level, and is constructed in stages with the common rafters interrupted at the high level 'wall plate' at mid height.

The central front entrance is deeply recessed within a semi-circular-headed opening with a projecting key stone, flanked by simple timber pilasters with a modern porch. The six-panel front door survives, capped by a simple fanlight. Flanking the opening are two pairs of double-hung sash windows with slender glazing bars: the pair of frames lighting the northern chamber have been replaced without glazing bars. This design is repeated above, with a fifth window over the main entrance. The ground floor windows have flat arches under brick panels; the first floor windows are set just below the eaves.

Within the northern gable, adjacent to the rebuilt chimney, survives a horizontal sliding sash lighting the northern attic room - a similar opening (now blocked) marks the site of the window which lit the southern garret.

INTERIOR: The walls within the lesser rooms of the house appear to have been plain plastered, but those within the ground and first floor southern rooms are lined with original panelling. The panelling is of simple design with small panels below the moulded dado rails and taller panels above. The panels within the first-floor chamber are plain with the upper panels extending to the ceiling cornice, whilst within the ground-floor room the panels are edged with a quadrant mould with those above the dado being divided into two tiers by a high-level rail. The windows within both rooms incorporate seats, as do those within the northern chamber. Set in the splayed reveals of all the window opening are folding panelled shutters, now fixed in their folded position.

Within the other ground floor rooms, dado rails and moulded skirting survive. The dado rail within the northern room has a fluted design and the heavily-moulded architraves around the doors and window openings also form bold decorative statements. The front door is flanked by fluted pilasters and there is a similar design of fluting to the openings which cross the ground-floor entrance passage and first-floor landing, on the line of the old rear wall. These latter openings have segmentally-arched heads. The principal C19 feature of the house is the staircase, with turned newel posts, slender stick balusters and a moulded string, all under a mahongany handrail. Two C19 fireplaces also remain, one in the rear parlour the other in the rear parlour chamber. Beneath the entry and southern room is a cellar which now incorporates a concrete ceiling (forming a new ground-floor slab) and its walls are lined in modern brickwork.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: A coach house, built between 1875 and 1896, is located within the rear yard of the building. Incorporated into the western wall is an earlier flint boundary, but otherwise the building has brick walls and a gabled softwood modified kingpost construction roof formed by nailed-on planks. The roof covering is slate and has pierced, crested ridge tiles to the apex.

HISTORY: Cartographic evidence shows that a house has stood on this site since at least 1617, although the present house is of mid-C18 date. It is possible that a rebuilt chimney, several reused medieval rafters and early-C16 window mullions, could originate from the earlier structure. The initial phase of the present house is restricted to the street (eastern) five bay range. There is structural evidence for a destroyed stair turret to the rear of the entrance hall, which gave access to two rooms within the roof, and this may have been flanked by service rooms located within a rear lean-to outshut, also now destroyed. The ground-floor layout was repeated on the first floor, except that there was a shared closet above the entrance area.

Between 1800 and 1850 a rear range was built parallel to the original house, the construction giving two extra rooms on all floors, including within the roof area. The 1838 tithe schedule lists the building as a house, but soon after that date it became a brewery. Cartographic evidence indicates that by 1875 a small, narrow, range of attached outhouses had been built projecting from the southwestern corner of the building, and by this date a rear porch had also been constructed. The structural evidence indicates that both represent additions, rather than being part of the early C19 work.

Following the early-C19 modifications alterations have been minimal, although a late C20 brick-built, flat-roofed toilet block has been added to the of the early C19 range.

SOURCES: David Martin & Barbara Martin, An Archaeological Interpretative Survey of 199 Preston Road, Preston, Brighton, Sussex (2007).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The C18 farmhouse at 199 Preston Road in Brighton is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Age: a mid C18 farmhouse dating to the mid C18 incorporating earlier fabric from a previous house on the site.
* Materials: the facade is built of squared, knapped flint laid in courses with tight joints to create a distinctive black shiny surface.
* Architectural interest: an elegant, well-proportioned facade, complete with rows of dressed sash windows.
* Intactness: a well preserved building evidencing several different phases of development.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26660926

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)