Aldworth Farm, formerly Beards Cottage, Lurgashall, West Sussex

Summary

House, probably of late C16 origin, and certainly C17, altered in the C18 and C20.

Description

House, probably later C16, altered in the later C17, C18 and later C20.

MATERIALS: timber frame, on the ground floor replaced in brick, on the upper floor infilled with wattle and daub and lathe and plaster and clad in tile-hanging. The ground floor of the northern section of the rear wall of the original building is predominantly built of stone rubble, with random galletting, below and in-filling a small section of timber framing, with a panel of early red brick above it. Roofs are clad in red plain tiles.

PLAN: the house is aligned north-east to south-west. It is in three cells and of two storeys, with C20 additions. The detailed survey (2007) thought it to be a two-cell smoke-bay house, with a contemporary end shot or lean-to to the north-east which was later adapted to create a full first floor. It has a steep hipped roof with a small gablet to the south and is hipped to the north over the C20 extension.

The C20 additions comprise a two-storey wing to the north-east and north and a single-storey bay attached to the south-west corner.

EXTERIOR: the ground floor is of red brick in Flemish bond with burnt headers. On the front (south-east) elevation the upper floor is clad in alternating bands of plain and fishscale tile hanging. In the northern bay of the original building the stubs of the posts and the mid-rail of the timber frame are visible on the eastern and western elevations. The entrance, on the eastern elevation, is beneath the main stack and has a C20 door beneath a large C20 gabled brick porch. Windows are three-light C20 timber casements in the central bay and small two-light casements in the northern bay.

At the rear the central bay has C20 brickwork on the ground floor with predominantly plain tile hanging above. The northern bay has a galletted stone rubble ground floor replacing the timber frame, and predominantly plain tile hanging above. It has shallow two-light casements on the ground floor beneath the mid-rail, while elsewhere there are small two-light casements. The main stack is in red brick with a moulded collar. The C20 additions are built in similar materials.

INTERIOR: apart from a section of mid-rail on the southern gable wall, and an exposed section of lathe and plaster on the upper floor gable wall. the structure in the southernmost bay is covered over. The ground floor ceiling, which has been partly removed, has narrow joists. The stack is of brick and painted and at the western side has been disturbed. The fireplace opening in the central room has been partly rebuilt but the bressumer has taper burns and possible apotropaic marks. The room has a transverse chamfered beam with the remains of diamond chamfer stops and although the structure is hidden, it appears to be pegged into the posts. The northern partition wall is framed in square panels and appears to have been always internal since there is no weathering on the northern face. The northern bay has more robust corner posts; the north-west post being slightly jowled, but has been pared down in the C20. The bases of the posts are not visible, but the timber frame on the lateral walls appears to be pegged into the posts. Mortises for braces in the eastern posts are aligned, while the mortise in the equivalent north-west post is at a different level. This bay has a deep axial chamfered beam which is not attached at the northern end where the wall has been removed to accommodate C20 stairs. These incorporate two sections of wall plate or rails with diamond mortises for a mullioned window frame, one with footings for rafters on the upper surface; the corner joint is covered but the horizontal section may be in situ.

At first floor level the central bay has a brick fireplace with chamfered piers and a timber bressumer and is probably of a later C17 date. This section has wide oak floor boards. New boards adjacent to the stack suggest stairs may have emerged here. Elsewhere, partitions, floor boards and other joinery have been removed.

The ceilings are boxed in and there was no access to the roofspace at the southern end of the building to confirm the roof structure and extent of smoke blackening described in the survey of 2007, which also noted the clasped purlin roof. At the northern end the roof has been rebuilt in the later C20 with paired rafters and a ridge piece.

History

Aldworth Farm, until recently know as Beards Cottage, is probably of late C16 origin, and typical of late C16 and early C17 settlement in this area of the Weald that was built on common land or beside the road, and occupied by smaller husbandmen or craftsmen rather than a yeoman farmer. A map and survey of Petworth Manor of 1610 refers to John Goodier of ‘Berdes’, a tenement and close of 17 acres, and the same family was connected with Beards, as it was later known until the early C18.

Beards Farm appears on the Ordnance Survey drawing of approximately 1813, and the cottage is marked on the 1840 Tithe map with a rectangular footprint with two buildings to the south-west of it. The Ordnance Survey of maps of 1875 to 1913 show a similar building, by then named Beards Cottage, but with a small building on the lane replacing the buildings to the south-west, which had been demolished.

The Wealden Research Group Survey: Beards, Jobsons Lane, Lurgashall (September 2007) described it as a small smoke-bay house, the smoke bay representing a transitional stage between a medieval open hall and a chimney house. They observed smoke blackening in the smoke bay, which was later filled by the chimney, probably in the later C17, whereas there was none in the adjacent bay. They considered that the earliest section of the house is formed of the bays either side of the stack and that this area was always floored, with a stair beside the stack. They considered that the adjacent bay to the north, described as an 'end shot' [the section currently with exposed framing] was originally perhaps a dairy, and built up to first floor level with stud walling of struts and lathe and plaster, probably in the C18.

In the later C20 the cottage was extended to the north by a two-storey wing which extends at the rear. A single-storey wing was subsequently added to the south, abutting the south-west corner of the house. Whilst they are attached to the historic core they do not contribute to its special interest.

The subsidiary outbuildings date from the C20 and are not included in the listing.

Reasons for Listing

Aldworth Farm, formerly known as Beards Cottage, probably of late C16 origin, and certainly C17, altered in the C18 and C20, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: its demonstration of the evolving plan and structure of a late C16 and C17 timber framed house, reflecting changing technology, domestic planning and function;

* Intactness: despite some alteration and loss of fabric, a demonstrable proportion of the timber frame, the brick stack and probably the roof structure survive.

External Links

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