Description

1144/0/10068
10-NOV-03

SLAUGHAM
HIGH BEECHES LANE
Handcross
Old Timbers

II

Farmhouse, later three cottages, now house. Later C16 or possibly earlier building of three bays with C18 dairy added to north west, refronted and extended by one bay to east in early C19, mainly refenestrated in early C20. Timberframed but with sandstone north west dairy and south, east and eastern part of north front refronted in brick to ground floor and tile-hung to first floor. Tiled roof with three brick chimneystacks, one off central and two external end chimneystacks. Two storeys. Irregular fenestration, mainly metal-framed casements with leaded lights. Plan form is lobby entrance but could be adaptation of open hall.
EXTERIOR: North or entrance front is timber framed with plastered infill to west side but with north western gabled sandstone dairy projection and brick with tile-hung first floor to east. Casement windows and six-panelled door. West side has exposed frame with curved brace and external brick chimneystack and projection of brick bread oven with penticed tiled roof. South side is of brick with tile-hanging above with three triple casement windows and plank door. East front has no windows but external brick chimneystack.
INTERIOR: End bay to the west, currently the kitchen, has exposed square beams and a cambered entrance to a domed bread oven. The adjoining dairy to the north has an C18 brick floor, original shelving with five cambered alcoves below and a plank door with pintle hinges. The penultimate bay to the west has a late C16 open fireplace with wooden bressumer, chamfered spine beam with lambs tongue stops and C18 tiled floor. The penultimate bay to the east has exposed square timbers and evidence that the division between the eastern bay was originally an external wall.The framing to the end bay is of late C18 or early C19 date. Access to the first floor is by an early C19 staircase in the western bay with plain newel post and stick balustrading on the first floor. The first floor western bay has a curved tension brace visible,tie beam and queenpost roof and there is a box-framed partition. The penultimate bay has wide C16 floor boards. Jowled posts are visible together with curved windbrace. The eastern bay has C18 framing with diagonal braces. Some rafters were visible and these were reported to be pegged with no ridgepiece and the roof was also reported to contain wattle and daub panels. Some good plank doors with pintle hinges.
HISTORY: This could be the building referred to in 1579 as "a tenement in Dencombe worth 40 shillings" in the Inquisition Post Mortem of Richard Covert at Cuckfield. By the Tithe Map survey of 1842 the building is described as "House in three tenements and garden" and was ocupied by agricultural labourers. From the 1851 census the building is occupied by grooms or domestic staff to Dencombe House. The building became one house after 1972 when the estate was sold.
Later C16 timberframed three bay lobby entrance house with C18 dairy partially refronted in early C19 but further research might reveal earlier origins.

[Unpublished Report by Richard J Howell "Old Timbers,Dencombe,Sussex" March 2003.]

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670092

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

• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version