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East Sussex Record Office
Additional Manuscripts, Catalogue EE
Additional Manuscripts, Catalogue EE
The entire contents of this catalogue are shown below.
Browse the hierarchical structure instead
Covering dates
Held by
East Sussex Record Office
40 Accessions
Conditions of access
Open to consultation, unless otherwise stated
East Sussex Record Office, Lewes
Since it opened, East Sussex Record Office has maintained a collection of 'Additional Manuscripts' for accessions which are not assigned, or are not accrued to existing collections which have, a distinctive alphabetic reference based on the collection's title. The Additional Manuscripts collection is now known as AMS
Some of these accessions added to AMS have been returned to A2A as free-standing catalogues. The residue are being returned as a series of catalogues, each covering a range of AMS numbers. The summary list below covers all the accessions within that range, with notes against those which are the subject of separate catalogues or which have been transferred to other collections or other repositories. The main body of the catalogue notes only the reference and the fact of the separate catalogue or the transfer
Summary of contents
AMS6551 Prospectus of Braughton School (sometimes spelt Broughton), 212 High Street, Lewes; nd, 1930s
AMS6552 Manor of Sheffield: court books 1667-1803, and rental [1598]
AMS6553 Sale particulars of Oldlands Hall, Maresfield (formerly Buxted), 1949
AMS6554 Hastings and East Sussex Chapter of the Institute of Construction Management Separately catalogued for A2A
AMS6555 Lists of parliamentary electors for Rye Borough constituency; parish of St Thomas the Apostle, Winchelsea; Icklesham; Brede; East Guldeford; Iden; Peasmarsh; Playden; Udimore; 1872
AMS6556 Copy particulars of sale of the Hadlow Down Estate, Mayfield, with plan, Sep 1949 includes: Upper Spoods Farm, Broomfield Farm, Hadlow House and Farm, 1 and 2 Beech Villas, Judds Farm, Criers Farm, Stile Reed Farm, Little Broadreed Farm and cottages, Brick Kiln Farm, Keeper's Cottage, Cherry Tree Cottage, Packhams Farm and Butcher's Shop, Red Triangle Hut site (village hall), Broadreed Farm with 1 and 2 Harts Cottages, Pigsfoot Farm, Oaklands, Enclosure Wood and Brickworks, Stocklands Farm, Howbourne Farm and Cottages, Huggetts Furnace and Huggetts Furnace Mill Farm with Broadreed View and Derridge Cottages, Hastingford and Marchant's Farm with Hastingford Cottages, Ford Brook Farm, Stonehurst, Stockyards Farm, Horleigh Green Farm, Stone Mill farm, Coes Farm, Little Ease Farm, Streel Farm, Castle Wood Farm, Limney and Stone Farm, Pinehurst Farm, Inchreed Farm and Cottage, Owlsbury Farm and Cottages, Sandhill and Claylands Farm and Cottage, site of Brattles Cottage and woodlands
AMS6557 Second World War mortuary records, St Michael's, Eastbourne; 1939; 1942-1943
AMS6558 Sale particulars of Battle Abbey; 1901
AMS6559 Eastbourne Branch of the League of Nations Union, later Eastbourne Branch of the United Nations Association; 1919-1993
Separately catalogued for A2A
AMS6560 Jenner family of the Bell Inn, High Street, Uckfield: inventory (Jenner-Jenner); 1876; apprenticehip (Jenner-Bannister, grocer), 1887
AMS6561 Composite manorial rentals of manors of Ashburnham, Broomham, Broomham Parkgate, Broomham Allfrays, Burwash, Burghurst, Cowden, Dallington, Hasleden, Hastings, Ittington, Netherfield, Rockland, and Wartling, 1860; manors of Ashburnham, Broomham, Burwash, Burghurst, Cowden, Dallington, Hasleden, Netherfield, Rockland, and Wartling, nd, c1906-1921
AMS6562 Copies of documents relating to East Sussex at Arundel Castle: memorandum of lease of Ketches and Rosiers in Fletching and Hailey Park and the farm called Middleton Farm [in Westmeston] (Howard-Colstoke), 1556
AMS6563 Scrapbook relating to Polegate produced by A H Hurdle; 1865-1999
AMS6564 Deeds of houses and land at Lower Street, Ninfield (Hood-Carpenter-Hood-Morris-Parker-Ellis), 1726-1812
AMS6565 Blatchington Court School (formerly the Brighton Asylum for the Instruction of the Blind, the Brighton School for Blind Boys and the Brighton School for Partially Sighted Boys), East Blatchington, Seaford and the Barclay School for Partially Sighted Girls, Sunninghill, Berkshire; 1843-1989
Separately catalogued for A2A
AMS6566 Logbook of Broomhill and Camber National School, 1877-1902
AMS6567 Records of June Stone (née Broadbridge), a teacher at St Nicolas CE Junior School, Portslade; 1938-2000
AMS6568 Papers of George Kent (1907-1980), Chief Public Health Inspector at Chailey RDC; includes an album containing papers, photographs and newscuttings, 1928-1980; correspondence and invoices concerning the building and furnishing of Barn Acre, Juggs Lane, Kingston, 1935-1950; 1928-1980
AMS6569 Print-out from XA 79 of Bodleian Library MS Rolls Sussex: rental of the manor of Bishopstone in Eastbourne, Litlington, Chalvington, Bishopstone, Norton in Bishopstone, South Heighton, Denton, Arlington, Waldron, Laughton and Ashdown Forest, 1442-1443; account of the tithe of clergy in the diocese of Chichester, Nathaniel Powell sub-collector, 1686; court-rolls of the hallmoot of Stoneham in South Malling with tenements in South Malling, Southerham in South Malling and Ringmer, 1451-1460; enrolled decrees placing Bayham Abbey in possession of Hailsham church after a dispute with Robert de Blechington, rector of Old Shoreham, 1286; court-roll of Herstmonceux, 1379; roll of estreats of courts and assizes of bread at Rye, 1276-1277; customs of Pevensey, 1356
AMS6570 Papers of Margaret Elsie Hughes (1898-1981), relating to Queenwood School, Eastbourne; 1914-1925, 2000
AMS6571 Map of the enclosure of Seaford Down, 1759
AMS6572 Diaries and papers of the Verrall and Brand families of Telscombe, Iford, Rodmell and Seaford; [1687] - 2000
AMS6573 Copy correspondence concerning permission to build a cottage between Greenslade and Collards Green at Warbleton; Thomas Blatcher of Warbleton, a shingler, Thomas Pelham, Edward Mabbe, minister, Thomas Stolyon and Edmund Ward, 1610; with list of petitions for grants of waste in the Rape of Hastings, 1581-1610 and undated
AMS6574 Copies of portions of the Langdon cartulary at the Public Record Office relating to the foundation of a chantry in Winchelsea St Thomas by Stephen Alard, 1312
AMS6575 Copies of Land Revenue Record Office maps at the Public Record Office, 1737-1829: Sir Charles Goring's Nowl-land alias Know-land in Barcombe, part of the [manor of] Balneth, by James Day, 1737; The Chantry Lands & Mote Farm in Beckley and Peasmarsh by the Drivers, 1808; derelict land at Hastings by the Drivers, 1821; Crown Land at Hastings by the Drivers, 1821
AMS6576 Copy of petition concerning marshland in Iden and Stone in Kent at the Public Record Office, c1385
AMS6577 Papers of the De La Warr Cycling Boulevard, Bexhill, and Bexhill Cycling Club; nd, c1889-1897
AMS6578 Account for farming on the Searles Estate at Fletching, sent to Thomas Spencer Wilson, bt (1726-1798) by his bailiff Henry Cook; [Woodcocks, Clapwater and Laurences Farms, Hesbridge Mead, the three Paste Fields, three South Fields and Hatches Field in Fletching]; 31 Mar - 5 Apr 1788
AMS6579 Copy map of Heathfield Vicarage Glebe by Thomas Weller, 1784
AMS6580 Records of the East Sussex Ploughing Match Society; 1949-2000
Separately catalogued for A2A
AMS6581 Records of the Danehill and Horsted Keynes Nursing Association
AMS6582 Diary of William Harison of Folkington, 1827-1828; transcript of radio broadcast from Jevington, c1950
AMS6583 Records of the East Sussex County Nursing Association, formerly the Sussex County Nursing Association, and the East Sussex Nursing Federation; 1896-1984
Separately catalogued for A2A
AMS6584 Album compiled by Cecil Fawssett, 83 High Street, Lewes, concerning Lewes Fire Brigade, 1904-[1913]
AMS6585 Photocopies of correspondence between the naturalist John Ray (1627-1705) and Timothy Burrell of Ockenden in Cuckfield (1643-1717); 1690-1707
AMS6586 Records of the Lewes Cattle Market Company, [1845] - c2000
Separately catalogued for A2A
AMS6587 Raven's Croft School, Eastbourne: school magazines, 1939-1964; photographs of the school, nd [20th century]
Separately catalogued for A2A
AMS6588 Turnpike Trust and other documents from the offices of Raper & Fovargue of Battle, solicotors, 1766-1871
AMS6589 Deeds of 6 St Nicholas Lane, Lewes (Pellatt-Woodward-Langridge-Alderton-Goodjer-Isted-Newman-Pullinger-Venus-Lockett-Wycherley-Beach-Pollard-Jordan-Taylor-Ryan-Methuen-Thompson-Gorski), [1758]-1976
AMS6590 Number not used
AMS6591 Letter from James Hurdis (1738-1816), Seaford, to Vicesimus Knox, Tonbridge; 1786
AMS6592 Copies of topographical drawings of Sussex by James Lambert the elder and younger and Samuel Hieronymous Grimm, 1775-1791
AMS6593 Number not used
AMS6594 Records of the Union Club, Seaford; 1901-1996
Separately catalogued for A2A
AMS6595 Photograph album of Telscombe compiled by Ambrose Gorham; 1904
AMS6596 Pedigree of the Curteis family of Kent (subsequently of Windmill Hill Place in Wartling), certified by William Segar, 1619
AMS6597 Copy preliminary design by George Dance for Kidbrooke Park, Forest Row, 1815, with other copies relating to Kidbrooke Park
AMS6598 Number not used
AMS6599 Map of Sir Charles M Burrell's Hamsey Place Farm by William Figg, 1810 with additions of 1855 and 1856
AMS6600 Copy letter of Edward la Zouche, baron Zouche, as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, to the bailiff of Pevensey concerning the case Sidrach Goodwin and others (on behalf of Elizabeth Ingram) against William Stone; 1622
Prospectus for Braughton School, 212 High Street, Lewes
nd, 1930s
Source of acquisition
: Donated 17 Mar 2000 (ACC 8092)
Related information
: For photographs of forms 2-5, 1924-1927, see ACC 8067/5
Administrative history
The school was in existence from at least 1924, although it does not appear in local directories until 1936/38 (Pike's Directory). Pike's Directories list the school as Broughton [sic] Ladies School. The school continued until at least the 1950s; the entry in the 1951/52 edition of the Lewes, Newhaven and District Directory published by Silver Eagle, describes it as Braughton Prep School. Miss M E Way seems to have been headmistress throughout its existence
The prospectus describes the establishment as a home school for girls, taking boarders and day pupils, and giving special attention to backward and delicate children; there was a preparatory class for boys
Records of the manor of Sheffield in Fletching, [1598]-1803, 1808
Archival history
The contents of Sheffield Park were auctioned by Sotheby's at the house in 1954 but these documents are not listed as a specific lot within the library sale. They were purchased on 5 March the same year from Sotheby's in London for the sterling equivalent of $36.40 by Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, and it can only be assumed that they were extracted from the auction at Sheffield Park with a view to a private sale
Their export to the USA had been in contravention of the Manorial Documents Rules, and in June 2000 Duke University generously returned the documents to East Sussex, where they were received by the acting Master of the Rolls and the Lord Lieutenant in her capacity of Custos Rotulorum at a ceremony on 24 July
Not all the manorial records were included in the sale; in 1956 two court-book of the manor of Sheffield and one of Tarring Peverell were deposited with the Sussex Archaeological Society in 1956 by S Stacey, who had found them and other documents at Sheffield Park
Source of acquisition
: Documents donated 2 June 2000 (ACC 8138)
In her account of Colin Godmans in Fletching, Lady Wolseley made use of 'the court rolls of Sheffield Park' and drew attention to a particularly fine volume, which seemed 'too good to be handed over to an estate-office' (Some of the smaller manor houses of Sussex; Medici Society, 1925, 170-71)
The documents had been shown to her by Arthur Gilstrap Soames (1854-1934), the owner of Sheffield Park. On his death the estate passed to his nephew Arthur Granville Soames (1885-1962), who sold the estate in 1953
Transcript, Dec 1808, of a survey of the manor, [1598]
1598, 1808
1 Title-page of the Buckhurst Terrier; annotated to disprove its assertion that the manor of Sheffield was part of the barony of Buckhurst
2 Title, manor of Sheffield
3-16 Freeholders
17-23 Copyholders
24-35 Demesnes; detailed survey of land and ironworks leased to Charles Howard, John Cogger and William Garland
36-37 The rectory of Fletching with the glebe lands; remainder (on the expiry of a 60-year lease from 1521) leased to John Rootes
38 Totals
39-42 Commons and wastes, fishings, customs, free warren (deer from Ashdown Forest, hawks), hundred of Danehill Sheffield (felon's goods, amercements, rights within the manors of Tarring Peverel and Tarring Camoys), gallows, pillory and cucking-stool
42 Copy certified by J[ohn] Hoper and Robert Hoffman Faulconer, 29 Dec 1808
Court book
Oct 1667 - Apr 1775
Index to AMS6552/2
Court book
May 1777 - Dec 1803
Including index
Page of pen-trials
nd, [?1785]
Including Oh had I all the Flocks that Graze on yonder yellow hill and William Langridge of Lewes in the county of Sussex, perukemaker (for whose death in 1785 see 4 above, page 35)
Sale particulars of Oldlands Hall, Maresfield (formerly Buxted)
Source of acquisition
: Donated 23 Mar 2000 (ACC 8099)
Related information
: For further information concerning the history of the estate, and Sir Alexander Nesbitt, see Sussex Archaeological Collections 137 (1999): Alexander Nesbitt, a Sussex antiquary, and the Oldlands estate, by Janet H Stevenson
For papers of Edward Gorringe (1883-1945) and Charles Edward Gorringe (1909-1994), of Fairwarp, both of whom worked on the Oldlands estate, and of the Fairwarp Band which was supported by Ventura P Misa and Sir Bernard Eckstein, see AMS6449
Administrative history
Oldlands Hall was built from 1869 by the antiquary Alexander Nesbitt, and was designed by Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt. The estate had recently been purchased from Coventry Patmore, the poet, who built Heron's Ghyll nearby. The Oldlands estate passed to Nesbitt's godson Reginald Nesbitt Wingfield Larking in 1900. After being leased to Sir James Pender, the house contents were auctioned, and the house and estate were sold to Ventura Paul Misa, a partner in a firm of sherry shippers, in 1905
In 1920 Oldlands was sold to Frederick Eckstein, a partner in the firm of Wernher, Beit & Co, and chairman of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate. After his death, the estate passed to his son Sir Bernard, who also had business interests in the Sudan. He lived at Oldlands Hall with his unmarried sister Herminie Beatrice. Sir Bernard increased the size of the estate from around 289 acres to 379 acres by purchasing Furnace Wood, Buxted, to the south of the property, and carried out many alterations to the house interior and gardens
The particulars described below were produced when the estate was broken up and sold after Sir Bernard's death in 1948. This copy was probably sent to Roy L Ridley, Buena Vista Farm, by N S Muir, secretary of the Oldlands Estate Company, during the 1967 dispute mentioned in AMS6553/2. The house and stables now (June 2000) remain as freehold apartments
Sale particulars
Of Oldlands Hall and estate (379a), [Buxted], for many years the home of Sir Bernard Eckstein, who carried out many improvements; includes photographs, names of tenants, and plan 1949
Includes Oldlands Hall; Wallflower Cottage; Down's View small holding; The Garden House; The Garden Cottage; Oldlands farm (87a 0r 32p); Old Mill Cottage; Old Dower House; Rose Cottage; Myrtle and Rosemary Cottages; Crowborough Lodge (details include later annotations, probably by Roy Ridley); Ivy or Minn's Cottage
Oct 1967 - Feb 1968
Mainly between Roy L Ridley, Buena Vista Farm, Herons Ghyll [Buxted], and N S Muir, secretary of Oldlands Estate Company Limited, Oldlands Hall, Herons Ghyll, concerning a dispute about painting the railings on the east side of the entrance to Oldlands, and the fence and wall opposite Ridley's house
Hastings and East Sussex Chapter of the Institute of Construction Management
Separately catalogued for A2A
Lists of parliamentary electors for Rye Borough constituency
Source of acquisition
: Donated 30 Mar 2000 (ACC 8106)
Related information
: For Rye Borough constituency lists for Winchelsea, 1840-1858, 1860, see RYE 107/3; for Icklesham, 1840-1858, 1860, see RYE 107/6; for East Guldeford, 1840-1860, see RYE 107/9; for Iden, 1844-1860, see RYE 107/5; for Peasmarsh, 1839-1860, see RYE 107/7; for Playden, 1840-1860, see RYE 107/4; for Udimore, 1840-1860, see RYE 107/8
The lists were required by the Act to amend the Representation of the People of England and Wales, 2/3 William IV, c. 45 (1832) s.2, 46 and 55, which extended the borough of Rye to include surrounding parishes in the parliamentary division; also by virtue of the Representation of the People Act, 1867, which extended the borough franchise, and reduced the number of members for Rye to one
They give names, addresses, and nature of the voters' qualifications, and are signed by the Overseers of the Poor
Parish of St Thomas the Apostle, Winchelsea
31 Jul 1872
Parish of Icklesham
[Aug] 1872
Endorsed: Mr B Tanner Eayle
Parish of Brede
31 Jul 1872
Parish of East Guldeford
31 Jul 1872
Parish of Iden
31 Jul 1872
Parish of Peasmarsh
31 Jul 1872
Parish of Playden
31 Jul 18[72]
Parish of Udimore
31 Jul 18[72]
Copy particulars of sale of the Hadlow Down Estate, Mayfield
Sep 1949
Source of acquisition
: Document donated 31 May 2000 (ACC 8141)
Related information
: For details of the title of the constituent parts of the estate and its administration by the Abergavenny estate, see ABE 1N2, 13A, 37Q, 44G, ACC 364/19
Administrative history
The Hadlow estate, assembled by the Day family of Hadlow House and London, was sold, following an order in Day v Day in chancery, to John Haskins of Elm Grove, Ventnor, Isle of Wight for £38,500 in 1860. He sold the estate to the Earl of Abergavenny for £43,000 in 1870
The Abergavenny Estate sold the Hadlow estate for £112,000 to Alexandrina Peckover of Bank House, Wisbech, the surviving daughter of Alexander Peckover, Baron Peckover (1830-1919) in 1947. The purchase was completed in 1948 and Miss Peckover was dead by 1949
Photocopy printed particulars of the estate
Sep 1949
Schedule of lots gives details of lot, colour on plan, whether let, in hand or requisitioned, and acreage; the particulars list fields, names of tenants, rent and detailed description of houses; includes photographs of some lots; annotated with details of prices realised or lots withdrawn
Photocopy plan to accompany AMS6556/1
Sep 1949
The following properties are included
Upper Spoods Farm, Broomfield Farm, Hadlow House and Farm, 1 and 2 Beech Villas, Judds Farm, Criers Farm, Stile Reed Farm, Little Broadreed Farm and cottages, Brick Kiln Farm, Keeper's Cottage, Cherry Tree Cottage, Packhams Farm and Butcher's Shop, Red Triangle Hut site (village hall), Broadreed Farm with 1 and 2 Harts Cottages, Pigsfoot Farm, Oaklands, Enclosure Wood and Brickworks, Stocklands Farm, Howbourne Farm and Cottages, Huggetts Furnace and Huggetts Furnace Mill Farm with Broadreed View and Derridge Cottages, Hastingford and Marchant's Farm with Hastingford Cottages, Ford Brook Farm, Stonehurst, Stockyards Farm, Horleigh Green Farm, Stone Mill farm, Coes Farm, Little Ease Farm, Streel Farm, Castle Wood Farm, Limney and Stone Farm, Pinehurst Farm, Inchreed Farm and Cottage, Owlsbury Farm and Cottages, Sandhill and Claylands Farm and Cottage, site of Brattles Cottage and woodlands
Second World War mortuary records, St Michael's, Eastbourne
Source of acquisition
: Donated 7 Apr 2000 (ACC 8110)
Related information
: Most of Eastbourne civil defence material is thought to have been destroyed. For minutes of the County Borough of Eastbourne war-time committees, including the Air Raid Precautions Committee, see DE/A34/1-5. For records of the Wartime Sussex Police Force, see SPA/1; for summaries and statistics of air raid incidents, which includes information for county boroughs in East Sussex, see SPA 2/21/42
The Air Raid Precautions Committee of Eastbourne Corporation reported on 16 March 1939 that there was existing mortuary accommodation for 39 adults and 2 children: Old Borough Mortuary (if in existence) 9; new mortuary, 12; Princess Alice Hospital, 4 adults and 2 children; St Mary's Hospital, 10; Leaf Hospital, 4. It was therefore necessary to identify additional mortuary accommodation in the event of war
The Cemetery Superintendent reported to the committee on 11 May 1939 that the local undertakers were prepared to assist as far as possible, but their premises mainly consisted of chapels providing accommodation for around 50 bodies only. He had therefore made preliminary enquiries among local clergy as to the possibility of using various church halls. It seems likely that the hall of St Michael and All Angels, Long Acre Close, was later used as a mortuary as a result of this initiative; its close proximity to Ocklynge Cemetery would have been a reason for its selection
Between the period 3 July 1940 and 28 May 1944 there were 174 fatalities and 820 injuries in the County Borough of Eastbourne. Deaths recorded in AMS6557/1 resulted from the following incidents
18 Dec 1942 at 11.45 4 high explosive bombs killed 18 and injured 36
7 Feb 1943 at 14.50 4 high explosive bombs killed 15 and injured 55
7 Mar 1943 at 12.52 18 high explosive bombs and a machine gun attack killed 14 and injured 65
3 Apr 1943 at 11.46 12 high explosive bombs and a machine gun attack killed 35 and injured 100
6 Jun 1943 at 13.35 13 high explosive bombs killed 12 and injured 52
Register of civilian dead at St Michael's mortuary due to war operations
19 Dec 1942 - 7 Jun 1943
Contains names of casualties from the following addresses
19 Dec 1942 22 Avondale Road; 47 Dennis Road; 27 Monceux Road; 42 Southern Road
20 Dec 1942 28 Desmond Road; 5a Spencer Road; 37 Willowfield Road
8 Feb 1943 Olive Lynn, Downs Valley Road, Lower Willingdon; 37 Gore Park Road; 28 Central Avenue; 10 Hardwick Road
9 Mar 1943 47 Jevington Gardens; 26a Meads Street; RAF [Mostyn Hotel]; 24a Meads Street
4 Apr 1943 8 Beach Road; 94 Seaside; 52 Tideswell Road; 67 Susans Road; 4 Ceylon Place; 20 Wallis Avenue; Grange Gardens; 14 Cornfield Terrace; 20 Cambridge Road
7 Jun 1943 39 Beach Road; Wimborne, Dorset; Waterworks Cottage, Waterworks Road
Labels relating to casualties listed in AMS6557/1
9 Mar 1943
Eastbourne Corporation notebook
nd, Feb 1943 - Jun 1943
Listing the belongings of casualties entered in AMS6557/1
Blank stationery and labels used by the mortuary
nd, 1940s
Ministry of Health circular 1846
Enclosing memorandum 222, setting out the duties that will fall on local authorities in regard to the collection and disposal of bodies of people killed in war operations; 16 Aug 1939
Memorandum subscribed: St Michael's
Sale particulars of Battle Abbey estate
Source of acquisition
: Donated 10 Apr 2000 (ACC 8111)
Related information
: Identical particulars are listed as BAT/2150, but are, however, missing at present (June 2000)
For a shorter version see BAT/2151
Administrative history
The estate was put on the market by the nephew of the Duchess of Cleveland in 1901. As a result, Sir Augustus Webster was able to buy back the estate which had been sold by his father, also called Augustus, to Harry Vane, later Duke of Cleveland, in 1857. For a full account of the Battle Abbey estate and the Webster family, see BAT
Sale particulars of the Battle Abbey estate
(6118a), in Battle, Catsfield, Whatlington, Sedlescombe, Ewhurst, Northiam, Bexhill-on-Sea, Hooe and Pett, produced by Joseph Slower, 43 Chancery Lane, London; contains description of the estate; photographs; ground plan of the abbey; names of tenants; plans of properties and estate in Battle, Ewhurst, Northiam, Bexhill and Hooe; 1901
At front: letter from Joseph Stower, to Messrs Fooks, Chadwick, Arnold and Chadwick, enclosing the particulars, and an admission order for their client to view the estate [pasted to the cover]; 12 Nov 1901
In addition to Battle Abbey the estate includes
Battle: The Almoner's House, 1 Market Green; 2-3 Market Green; 1-2 Park Lane; 87-88 High Street; Lower Lake; 13, 16-19 Upper Lake; Lidcox Land; 3-4 Marley Lane; Drill Hall; Battle Cattle market; The Wellington Inn; George meadow or cricket field; Fern Lea House, with King's Head windmill; Park Dale (65a 0r 18p); Downbarn and Telham (108a 3r 4p); Great Park farm (152a 1r 9p); Chantler's Down (18a), in Battle and Catsfield; Squirrel farm (58a 2r 27p); Whitelands farm (68a 2r 11p); Lower Almonry farm (212a 0r 30p); Upper Almonry farm (127a 2r 25p); the Kilk lands (31a 2r 24p); Netherfield farm (40a 2r 24p); Beech farm (199a 1r 7p); Virgin's Croft farm (24a 3r 26p); Barrack lands (31a 2r 34p); Sandpits farm (18a 3r 26p); Ringlett's farm 94a 2r 14p); Eastlands farm (47a 0r 38p); Fuller's farm (68a 0r 19p); Coursebarn farm (117a 3r 23p); Little Park farm (101a 3r 17p); Blackfriars farm (112a 0r 11p); Marley farm (208a 3r 20p); Beanford farm (92a 3r 38p); Lower Marley farm (97a 0r 28p); Branshill farm (35a 3r 8p); Burnt Chimney farm (64a 1r 21p); Lower Burnt Chimney lands (16a 2r 35p)
Ewhurst and Northiam: Reeves' and Watt's Palace farm (55a 2r 33p), Ewhurst; Newhouse farm (206a 0r 25p); Marchant's farm (100a 3r 2p); Chantry lands (46a 3r 35p); Tufton Place (453a 1r 21p), Northiam; Padgham farm (214a 1r 25p), Ewhurst; Shoreham farm (116a 2r 0p), Ewhurst
Bexhill and Hooe: Upper Barnhorne (235a 1r 18p)
Eastbourne Branch of the League of Nations
Separately catalogues for A2A
Jenner family of the Bell Inn, High Street, Uckfield
Source of acquisition
: Donated 11 Jul 2000 (ACC 8162)
Administrative history
The Bell Inn is listed in Pigot's New Commercial Directory, 1828/29, and it seems likely that the premises used as an inn from at least the late 18th century, since they are probably shown on A map and survey of two parcels of land belonging to Mr Richard Hart, by T Weller (ACC 3763)
The inventory was compiled because James Jenner took over from Mrs Caroline Jenner as licensee
The inn was demolished around 1980 for the building of the Somerfield supermarket
Inventory and valuation of the furniture, stock, fixtures and effects of the Bell Inn, Uckfield
17 Feb 1876
Compiled by Thomas Markwick, auctioneer, Uckfield, [as part of transfer] from Mrs Caroline Jenner to James Jenner
Apprenticeship indenture
15 Nov 1887
Cecil Charles Jenner of Uckfield, aged 16, with the consent of his father James Jenner of Uckfield, innkeeper, to Thomas Bannister of Uckfield, draper, grocer and general shopkeeper, from 19 Sep 1887
W: John Bishop
Ashburnham estate composite manorial rentals
Source of acquisition
: Purchased 3 Jul 2000 (ACC 8155)
Related information
: For similar Ashburnham estate manorial rentals, 1738-1758; 1802-1875, see ASH 730-740; for 1850, see AMS5692/3
Manors of Ashburnham, Broomham, Broomham Parkgate, Broomham Allfrays, Burwash, Burghurst, Cowden, Dallington, Hasleden, Hastings, Ittington, Netherfield, Rockland, and Wartling
Indexed; 1860
Duplicates ASH 739, but also contains later annotations
Manors of Ashburnham, Broomham, Burwash, Burghurst, Cowden, Dallington, Hasleden, Netherfield, Rockland, and Wartling
nd, c1906-1921
Copies and lists of documents relating to East Sussex at Arundel Castle Archives
Source of acquisition
: Document purchased 16 August 2000 (ACC 8191)
This class brings together copies and lists of documents at Arundel Castle Archives. For published lists of the archive, see F W Steer (ed), Arundel Castle Archives 1-4 (West Sussex County Council 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1980)
The Arundel Castle Archives reference follows the description of each item
Ketches in Fletching [no ref.]
Memorandum for the grant of a lease
Archival history
ACA A935 f41v
Related information
: For a rental of the manor, reciting a 21-year crown lease of a house and 200 acres called Catches to Thomas Colstoke at £4 6s 8d, 12 Apr 1550, see CKS U269 E341 (ESRO XA 4/1)
For a survey of the manor in 1565 showing Colstoke as tenant of Ketches and 350 acres, see SRL 14/4 f2
For the conveyance of the manor of Sheffield by the fourth duke to Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, in 1571, see ACC 4504
For a memorandum of a lease of Ketches and Rosiers, including a list of field-names (including Cowlstock Mead) to Thomas Rixson, 25 May 1582, held in 1598-99 by John Cogger, see SRS 39 (1933) 73
For a lease of a house called Ketches, a barn covered with flax called Rosiers and 291 acres by Richard [Sackville], earl of Dorset, to his steward Richard Amherst of Lewes, esq, 23 Mar 1611, see ACC 4504
Middleton manor and Hailey Park were demesne of the barony of Lewes and fell to the Norfolk share on its division in 1415 (VCH 7 117)
Administrative history
Ketches and Rosiers, on the south side of the road from Sheffield Green to Freshfield Crossways in Fletching, formed part of the demesne lands of the manor of Sheffield, which had been in the hands of the crown between the attainder of Thomas Howard, 4th duke of Norfolk, in 1547 and his restoration in 1553. It remained part of the Sheffield Park estate into the 20th century
To Thomas Colstoke of a house and lands called Catches and Rosyers in Fletching and Hailey Park and the farm called Middleton Farm [in Westmeston], (which he held by lease of Edward 6), for 21 years from 29 Sep 1556 at the usual rent, entry-fine £50; TC to surrender his two patents; signed by TC and Thomas [Howard] duke of Norfolk; 14 Feb 1556
Scrapbook relating to Polegate produced by A H Hurdle
Source of acquisition
: Deposited 23 Aug 2000 (ACC 8199)
Harold Hurdle, who was formerly employed by Ranks Hovis McDougall, retired to Polegate in 1977, and produced this scrapbook of photographs, postcards, newscuttings and notes, much of which had been borrowed for copying. The album is dated July 1981, but includes more recent additions. He mounted a display of photographs for the Polegate Shop Museum in 1983, which was exhibited in Polegate Library after the museum's move to Battle in March 1986. Hurdle died in May 2000
Containing copy and original photographs, postcards, newscuttings and notes concerning Polegate; 1865 - 1999
Includes copy and original photographs for the subjects listed below, unless otherwise stated
1-2 Polegate Post Office (1915-1967), 1928; the level crossing area, including Mr. Hill's shop that served as the Post Office from 1900 to 1915, 1902
2r The Congregational Church (now United Reformed Church) built in 1904, and the Toll House building; 1905
3r The old Horse and Groom (built in 1835); 1904
3v The Jubilee tree, planted in 1887; 1902
3v The first school building in Hailsham Road, (opened in 1850); 1907 and nd, c1981
4v St Leonard's Laundry building (built around 1890; demolished in 1975), nd, c1981; St Leonards Terrace, which was built on the site in 1976, nd, c1981
5r The Junction stores; nd, c1905
6v The Toll House (built c1785; demolished in 1910); 1897
7r The old Horse and Groom (demolished in 1948), 1902; premises of William Wood, blacksmith, wheelwright, saddler and harness maker (in existence from 1840; demolished 1965), showing William Wood (died 1934), 1909; The Cottage, High Street, nd, c1920
7v Millfields farm, Swine's Hill (in existence in 1842; extended c1855; demolished 1957), and its site; 1918 and nd, c1981
8r St John's Church, Polegate, 1900; the Jubilee tree (planted in 1887), 1904 and 1981; commemoration plaque concerning the tree, nd, c1981
8v, 10r The level crossing, including the Old Junction Hotel (built 1850; demolished 1975), and William Wood's coal office; 1920 - c1981
9r Albert Road, including a bungalow originally called Winsome, which was won as the first prize in the Tit-Bits 'Bullets' competition by Mr Holt (built 1925; demolished Dec 1987); 1909-1981
9v Copy photographs, postcard and note concerning Osborne House (built in 1869 by W H Attwood; demolished in 1962), and Osborne Court flats, which were built on the site; 1910 - c1981
10v,11r Copy postcard, photographs and notes concerning Polegate's first station (opened 1846), and second station (opened in 1881); the old Lamp House (demolished Mar 1986); nd, c1880 - c1981
11v Polegate tower windmill (built in 1817), 1927 - c1981; Montague Stores, now Montague Villa (built 1879), 1928 - c1981
12r St Johns Church, and the stained glass memorial window to Sarah Matilda and Caleb Diplock, with accompanying note (Reader's Digest); Jan 1963 - nd, c1981
12v-13r Polegate crossroads, including Cecil Lee, the Automobile Association man, 1925; the new Horse and Groom (built 1935/36), 1949 - nd, c1981
13-16 Copy plans, posters, and sale particulars issued for the first and second sale of Polegate land for development purposes; 1866 and 1877
15r Brickfield (from 1890 to 1933), and its site at the west end of Brook Street (now Brookside Avenue); nd, c1890 - 1981
16v Aerial views of Polegate; 1935
17r The Operetta Festival at Craignish, Church Road, Polegate, including Mr and Mrs "Corrie" Taylor and Daisy Taylor, Corrie's sister; 1912
17-24 Copy and original photographs and notes concerning the Diplock family and Southdown Hall (their residence from 1873 to 1936; demolished 1939), including Caleb Diplock the younger (1841-1936); Southdown Court flats, Old Drive (built on the site of Southdown Hall in 1955); Diplock family tombs, and transcripts of inscriptions; the two lodges of Southdown Hall (built 1873; now private residences); stag statue from the driveway of Southdown Hall; Southdown Hall during demolition, 1939; Edith Page and Lillian Hard, housemaids at Southdown Hall, 1925; the Lion Steam Brewery (property of Caleb Diplock and Son, built in 1863 and demolished around 1920); pedigree of the Diplock family; copy letter from Sarah Matilda Diplock the younger, to Emily Pope (later the mother of Henry Twine), 4 Feb 1904; nd, c1900-1981
24-25 Twine's Bus Service, Polegate, including copy tickets; photographs of buses; photograph of Henry Twine (died 25 Sep 1987), 1928; letter to [Harold] Hurdle from Henry Twine, 9 May 1985; 1923-1985
25v Copy photograph and newscuttings concerning busker called The Dude of Sussex Private Polegate Symphony Orchestra; Hailsham Gazette, 1 Jul 1987; Sussex Express, 7 Nov 1987
26r Young folk dancers including Peggy Wood, 1932; the Polegate Majorettes, 1982
26-29 Copy photographs, newscuttings and notes concerning the first and second Polegate station and station buildings, including the railway crossing keeper's house (built 1849; demolished in 1963); level crossing, showing the corn stores (demolished 16 Oct 1968), 1931; engine Sir Dinadan, nd, c 1880-1986
29-30 Copy photographs, notes, and newscutting concerning Otham Court, Polegate, nd, c1930-1976; sale particulars (Country Life), 7 Apr 1955
30-31 Polegate watermill (built in 1833; demolished in 1975), 1943; the last miller Albert Ovenden (died in 1973); 1943-c1970
The millstream now runs under Farmlands Avenue/Farmlands Way
32r Copy photographs and notes concerning Sayerland House, Polegate (built 1768), and William Woods and family, the occupiers in 1908; 1908 and nd, c1981
32v, 33 The old smithy (demolished 1965), nd, c1965; Hospital Day parade, and open air service in Mr Diplock's Home Field, 1928; Band of Hope and maypole dancers, including Mr Parsons and the Taylor family, in the garden of Mount Pleasant, Victoria Road, 1920
34r The delivery van of the Old Mill Bakery, 2 High Street, Polegate, showing Fred Nicholson, van boy, aged 15; delivery van of the Myrtonville Soft Water Laundry, Myrtonville, Polegate; 1926
34v 1 and 3 Brook Street; Polegate Inn (the Dinkum), High Street; 20 and 22 Albert Road (formerly the telephone exchange, and a school run by Miss Dapps; now flats); nd, c1980
35r St John's Cottages, High Street; the old slaughter house, (partly demolished in 1981); the first Polegate school, Hailsham Road (opened in 1850); nd, c1981
35v Polegate windmill (built in 1817; restored in 1967), including copy of watercolour by Edwin Byatt (1888-1948), nd, c1920; nd, c1920-1950
37r Copy aerial photograph of Polegate; 1935
37-38 Copy photographs, receipted account and advertisements for the Lion Steam Brewery, the property of Caleb Diplock & Son; 1865 - nd, c1900
39r L A Brighty, stationmaster at Polegate (from 1915 to 1921), nd, c1915; Polegate junctions, 1907; the Granary, a corn mill and store in the railway goods yard, in the course of demolition, 16 Oct 1968; 1968
39v Copy and original photographs showing London Road, Polegate, comparing it with the present A22 by-pass, nd, c1920 and 1981; Wannock, nd, c1900 and c1981
40r Bramley Cottage, Sayerland Road, Polegate, showing the cottage that was demolished in 1957, and the present building, the home of Peggy Jackson; nc, c1930 and c1981
40v Sayerland Road, Polegate; nd, 1930s and c1981
41 Copy classroom photograph of the old Infants School, Hailsham Road, showing the teacher, Annie Robins (later married to Ernie Randall), nd c1912; Ernie and Annie Randall, and their children Ron, Nora and Ernie, nd, c1915-1929; notes concerning Ernie Randall, carrier (died 1960) and copy photographs of vehicles operated by his firm, E Randall & Sons, carriers, Polegate, 1920-nd, c1950
42r Note concerning Ron Randall (died 1993), the son of Ernie Randall, 1993, and copy photographs of him on parade with the re-formed Home Guard, with commanding officer, Eric Petch, 1950; David Randall (who was killed in action in France in Nov 1918, and was the uncle of Ron Randall) in a delivery cart belonging to J F Banks, butchers, nd, c1914; outdoor event held in the field on which Gilda Crescent was built, nd, c1915
42v Copy photographs of Polegate residents, Father John Flanagan, Barry Pickett, Joe Mehmet, Brian Thompson, Mrs Vera Butler, John Colbran, Len Hawes, Mrs Gladys Colbran, David Challinor, Fred Hurst, David Webb, Jim Dobell, Sam Richardson, Miss Winifred Hardingham, Reg Shingleton, Carl Mullineux, Frank Bennett, Dennis Ferridge, David Buck, Mrs Sheila Flory, Horace Tucker, Bill Daly, Henry Twine and the Rev Peter Thompson, (Eastbourne Gazette), 1977; newscuttings with photograph, concerning the death of Frederick Hill, a High Street, Polegate shop owner, and the closure of his shop (The Eastbourne Gazette), 1954 and Apr 1999
f43r Polegate cricket team, showing Tom Crouch, William Weller, George Colbran, Wilton Quick, William Millar, Curly Colbran, Stanley Davey, ? George Cole, Tom Bolton Dear, Reggie Millar, Frank Waghorn, Alec Payne, Reg Luckman, 1912; St John's Church Choir showing Stanley Tyhurst, William Thorpe, Robert Boniface, Tom B Dear, George Thorpe, John Colbran, Geoffrey Pitcher, Frank Thompson, Robert Oulds, Reverend C H Black, Arthur Horton, Ronald Williams, Brian Fletcher, Stanley Stain, Tom Clark, 1929; Polegate Civil Defence, with Desmond Reeve holding a cup, nd, c1942
43v,44r Copy class photographs of Polegate Infants School, 1909-1920; group of children in The Twitten, Polegate, 1920
44r Polegate School football team, showing Ted Levett, John Colbran, Bob Clifton, Albert Banks, Mr. Reed, Clifford Taylor, Ernest Hoather, Reg Williams, Albert Simmonds, Fred Nelson, Jack Sayers, Joe Watkins, 1928; Polegate School gardening class, showing George Breach, Reg Williams, Mr. Reed, Albert Ellis, Bill Hunniset, Albert Banks, Clifford Taylor, Nelson Delves, Fred Nelson, Ted Levett, John Colbran, Jack Sayers, Joe Watkins, Tom Fiest, Bob Clifton, Albert Simmonds, Tom Knight, Ernest Hoather, 1928
f44v The old Horse and Groom (formerly the Old Commercial Inn), showing brewers' dray of the Star Brewery Company, Eastbourne, nd, c1900; mothers' meeting at Craignish, Polegate, 1909; Polegate Scout Troop in Station Road, 1920
f45v Brook Street, Polegate, with two soldiers and Percy Crowhurst in the foreground, 1916; newscuttings concerning the deaths of Percy and Louisa Crowhurst, 1982 and 1993
46r Staff of Victoria Hand Laundry, Victoria Road, Polegate, and copy washing book, 1914; 65 Polegate Road, the former laundry building, nd, c1981
46f Receipted account for funeral of Alfred Cracknell, issued by C P Taylor (Corrie Taylor), carpenter, joiner and undertaker, High Street, Polegate, Jan 1909; Corrie Taylor (1863-1940), and his premises (also formerly the Myrtonville Soft Water Laundry run by Harry Streeter), nd, c1910 and 1981
47 Copy newscuttings and account of the triple child murder by Mary Ann Taylor, the widow of Samuel Taylor, grocer, Polegate; The Illustrated Police News, 4 Jan 1890, The Eastbourne and Hailsham News, 11 May 1989, and The Eastbourne Gazette, nd, c1990
Marshall Hall, the barrister, held a junior brief in the trial
48r Samuel B Taylor's grocery shop, Brook Street (opened around 1868, and closed about seventy years later), and the present building; nd, c1912 and 1983
49-50 Copy stationery and photographs of the Cupressus Nurseries, Hailsham Road, Polegate (established 1928; closed 1982), including Montague Villa (built 1879), nd, c1950-1981; photographs of Desmond Goodyear Reeve, owner of the Cupressus Nurseries (died 28 Mar 1981) and his grave stone, nd, c1970s-1981
50v Photographs of Queensmead Residential Care Home, built on the site of the Cupressus Nurseries (opened May 1989); 1987-1989
51-52 Copy sale particulars and posters for the sale of Southdown Hall, Polegate, the estate of Caleb Diplock, deceased; Aug 1936
53-54 Copy newscuttings concerning the history of Polegate; The Eastbourne Gazette, 1964
55r Copy newscutting with photographs, concerning the role of the Polegate Royal Naval Airship Station in the First World War; The Eastbourne Gazette, 30 Aug 1969
56 Copy photograph of Hospital Day Parade, Polegate, nd [1928]; notes by Vera Hodsoll concerning Hospital Day and entertainment in Polegate in the late 19th century, 1982-1983; copy photograph of grave of C P (Corrie) Taylor, his wife Fanny, and sister Daisy, nd, c1981
57 Copy article A happy place for retirement, by Oliver Mathews; Sussex Life, Jun 1983
59v Notes by Vera Hodsoll concerning Southdown Hall and the Diplock family; 1984
60 Notes by Vera Hodsoll concerning the Jubilee Tree, Polegate, and Twine's Bus Service; 1986-1987
61 Copy newscuttings with photographs, concerning Polegate Shop Museum, founded by Mrs Annette Buckley, and the display of photographs mounted by Harry Hurdle; 1983-1986
62r St John's church, Polegate and St John's Road; nd, c1905
62v Polegate Infant School, Hailsham Road, (demolished 1993), nd c1981; cottage in Brook Street, formerly a fish shop (demolished 1987), nd, c1981
63r Second World War evacuees arriving at Polegate Station, nd, C1939-1940; the last steam train on the line from Hailsham to Eridge (the Cuckoo Line), 13 Jun 1965; High Street, Polegate, 1955
63v Comic Cricket match, 1928; Polegate Comrades Football Club, 1919-1920; High Street, Polegate, looking south, 1925
64r Laying the the foundation stone of the United Reformed Church, High Street, Polegate; 1904
64v Unveiling of the new Polegate village sign by David Day, 10 Nov 1989; Wannock strawberry fields, nd, c1920
65r Displays of photographs by Harry Hurdle at Polegate Shop Museum and Polegate Library; 1981 - nd, c1986
May 1999 - Sep 1999
Concerning the campaign to save the Jubilee tree, Polegate; Eastbourne Herald
Deeds of houses and land at Lower Street, Ninfield
Archival history
These documents were bought at an antique shop in Hastings in the 1970s and given to the depositor, to whose ancestors they relate
They were formerly listed as East Sussex Deeds in Private Hands 42
Source of acquisition
: Documents deposited 27 September 2000 (ACC 8217)
Related information
: For a descent of this tenement from 1628 to 1845 see ROHAS Tenement Analysis for Ninfield, P31/19
For a list of the deeds of the neighbouring property (P21/21, 42), owned by John Collier, 1689-1724, see SAY/2691 pages 108-111
Conveyance ([lease &] release) for £100
[21 &] 22 Jul 1726
William Hood of Herstmonceux, husbandman (eldest son of Samuel Hood of Hailsham, farmer, deceased, only brother of Ann Hood, who married Richard Carpenter of Sedlescombe, glover, deceased, by whom she had issue William Carpenter of Sedlescombe, gent, deceased), to William Morris of Ninfield, cordwainer
Messuage, garden, orchard, backside and two pieces of land (3a), occupied by WM (NE: Battle - Pevensey road; SW: messuage of John Vigor otherwise Waite; NW: John Collier, gent; N: Richard Brook), in Ninfield
Recites: ownership by AH and descent to her only child WC; death of WC intestate and grant of PCC administration to Ann Attree of Uckfield, widow [PRO PROB 6/102, Feb 1726]; insufficiency of WC's estate to pay debts; bond in £200 by WC to John Brightesse the elder of Whatlington, farmer (now vested in his widow and executrix Elizabeth Brightesse [of his will of 1721: WA 51.37]), 11 Nov 1712; bond in £200 by WC to Mary Moore of Battle, widow (now vested in William Birch of Battle, cutler, and his wife Mary, daughter and executrix of Mary Moore [of Battle; see Battle OW 81, proved May 1720]), 13 Apr 1716; judgement on the bonds in King's Bench, Hilary 1726; application of £93 10s of the purchase-price to Ann Attree towards the discharge of the judgement
W: Richard Reed, John Collier, John Backshell
Mortgage for £120 at 3¾%
27 Nov 1759
William Morris the elder of Ninfield, cordwainer, to Robert Clark of Ninfield, husbandman
Two messuages, gardens, orchards and two pieces of land (3a), occupied by WM and James Lintott, in Ninfield
W: Ann Creef, William Brewer
Endorsed: receipts for interest, 1761-1770
Bond for AMS6564/2
27 Nov 1759
Assignment of the mortgage of 1759
By William Morris the elder of Ninfield, cordwainer, William Morris the younger of Ninfield, cordwainer (executor of Robert Clark of Ninfield, husbandman) to William Crouch of Ashburnham, yeoman; W: David Beale, John Sinnock; 26 Jul 1770
Endorsed: receipts for interest (the last for the principal paid by WM's sons John, Thomas and Samuel, W: J Ransom), 1771-1777
Bond for AMS6564/4
26 Jul 1770
Probate (Lewes) of the will (27 Dec 1775) of William Morris of Ninfield, shoemaker
29 May 1778
Chattels to wife Elizabeth Morris; real property to sons Thomas, Samuel, John and James Morris, the executors
W: Peter Buxton, Robert Grant, J Ransom
Conveyance (lease [& release])
24 [& 25] Mar 1784
Thomas Morris of Ninfield, cordwainer, Samuel Morris of Wartling, cordwainer and John Morris of Ninfield, cordwainer (sons and devisees of William Morris of Ninfield, cordwainer) to Thomas Parker of Hellingly, gent
Two (formerly one) messuages, shop, yards, gardens, orchards and backsides, with two pieces of land (3a) occupied by TM, Peter Buxton and John Noakes (formerly by WM's father William Morris and James Lintott)
Recites: death of WM's fourth son James Morris
W: H Waterman, William Hayes
Bond in £600
1801, 1812
For the payment of £300 + 5%, Francis Ellis of Ninfield, mercer, to Thomas Parker of Hellingly, gent; W: James Martin, John Thatcher the younger; 25 Mar 1801
Endorsed: receipts for interest, 1802-1808; for principal received by John Mynn, 6 May 1812
This bond represents a mortgage by the purchaser to the vendor - Ellis bought the property in 1800
Blatchington court school
Catalogued separately on A2A
Logbook of Broomhill and Camber National School
Archival history
This document was in private hands in October 1996, when its owner wrote to the record office requesting information on the history of the school. He said that the book had been salvaged from the ruins of the school after a flying bomb had destroyed it in 1944, but since the buildings had been demolished seven years earlier it seems likely (see Introduction) that the book was housed at the neighbouring mission church which was destroyed by the V1. He declined the office's request to deposit the book. In November 2000 the volume was purchased from a dealer, whose immediate source had been another dealer
Source of acquisition
: Document purchased 22 November 2000 (ACC 8243)
Related information
: For a cash book, 1887-1903, see ESC 40/1; for an HMI report, 1910, see C/E 2/1; for general correspondence, including complaints against the head teacher whose dogs worried sheep and her subsequent resignation, 1896-1901, see DAP box 62/4; for correspondence concerning the appointment of a headmistress, including testimonials, 1900, see DAP box 319/8
For Ministry of Education files, 1871-1916, 1919-1935 and 1937, see PRO ED 21/17189, 40898 and 62007
Administrative history
Camber School was built in 1876 and opened in April 1877 in what an HMI described in 1880 as a cold and desolate spot, drawing its children from a scattered and fluctuating population, including the coastguard families at Camber and Jurys Gap. Rhoda Earl, a probationary teacher, was appointed mistress at £40 a year and Walter Dawes, a Rye solicitor, served as secretary. According to the first inspection, few of the children had attended any school before
A teacher's house was built in 1881 and a new classroom opened in April 1901. Probably as a result of the dilapidation of its buildings, the school closed on 25 January 1937 and the children transferred to Rye; the buildings were demolished within a year. The neighbouring mission church, to which this document had probably been transferred, was destroyed by a flying bomb on 28 August 1944 (C/E 10/75, SPA 1/1/4)
The school was financed by grants from the National Society, the government and (by 1896) a voluntary rate of 3d in the £
Other than copies of HMI reports, until the appointment of Sarah Cook in 1894 the logbook consists largely of notes of the admission and discharge of pupils. Thereafter the entries are written in a fuller narrative style with more attention to teaching and events and fewer mentions of children
As well as its situation problems faced by the school included the proximity of golf links, at which the older boys were often absent caddying, and a manager incapable of verifying the register 'owing to his inability to read names on schedule, he being no scholar'. In 1900 the mistress was compelled to walk in every morning from Rye when the 9am tram was discontinued. Amy Swain, head teacher 1896-1897, incurred the wrath of a local farmer when the large number of dogs that she kept at Camber worried his sheep. Miss Swain suggested that the complaint was more to do with her chastisement of his sons, but the event seems to have led to her hurried departure from her post
There is a file on the school, 1876-1938, among the archive of the National Society at the Church of England record centre, Bermondsey; parts of this introduction have been based on information kindly supplied from it by Sarah Duffield, archivist
Head teachers
1877-1883 Rhoda Ann Earl (Mrs Moffett from Apr 1880)
1883-1894 Kate Wood (Mrs Southerden from Oct 1891)
1894-1896 Sarah Cook
1896-1897 Amy Swain; Robert James Dash of Lydd (temporary appointments)
1897-1900 Mrs Kate Southerden
1900-1902+ Elizabeth Rudduck
<1915-1915+ Miss Mead
<1927-1927+ Miss Stokes
Logbook of Bromhill and Camber National School
Apr 1877 - Jun 1902
At front: dimensions of school [?1877] and of [?additional] classroom, [?1901]
Records of June Stone (née Broadbridge), a teacher at St Nicolas CE Junior School, Portslade
Source of acquisition
: Donated 5 Dec 2000 (ACC 8252)
Related information
: For a copy newscutting concerning Mrs Stone's career at the school, see ESC 135/4/1. For school records and notes concerning the history of the school, see ESC 135
Administrative history
As June Broadbridge, Mrs Stone was a former pupil of the school from 1938 to 1942. She taught at St Nicolas School throughout her teaching career, from 1951 to 1994. During that time a new school building was opened on 12 July 1967, on a site adjacent to the old school. Her husband, John Stone, also taught at the school
Copy photographs
June Stone is described as JS in the descriptions below
Miss Patching's first year juniors' class
Sep 1938
The donor is sitting in the fourth desk from the front, in the row of desks next to the wall on the left side of the photograph, and is sitting next to a boy whose head is partially obscured
Photocopy photographs
p1 Class 8 in old school playground; includes JS; Jul 1952
p2 School production of The Star of Christmas at the old parish hall, Abinger Road; 17-18 Dec 1952
Includes: Linda Smith as Mary; Elizabeth Miles as Joseph; Diana Yeates as Gabriel
p3 JS with class, in old school playground; 1954
p4 School team that won 3rd place in the Inter-Schools sports competition; 1954 includes W Eastwood and JS
p5 Class 1 and 2 in performance of the summer concert at the Secondary Modern Boys' School; 1954
p6 2nd, 3rd and 4th year assembly; Sussex Daily News, 1955 shows overcrowding at the school due to the post-war baby bulge
p7 JS and class 8, in old school playground; 1956
p8 First year dancers, group 2, in costume for production of Jan of Windmill Land, in old school playground; summer 1957
Back row, left to right: John Budd; Elizabeth Wilson; Geoffrey Freeman; Jeanette Palmer; Marcus Jackson; Jacqueline Cox; Brian Edwards; Carol Booth; Stephen Jepps; Veronica Bloomfield
Front row; left to right: John Ford; Christine Green; John Washer; Jennifer Holledge; Graham Maymon; Jennifer Comber; Douglas Ryde; Jacqueline Harvey
p9 Summer concert production of Jan in Windmill Land at Boys' Secondary Modern School; 1957
Includes Geoffrey Holder-Jones as the Burgomaster; Derek Lawrence as St Nicolas
p10 Staff outside the old school building; autumn 1957
Back row, left to right: Geoffrey Holder-Jones; George Harman; George Slack; Dorothy Wells; Horace Chandler (caretaker); Derek Lawrence
Front row, left to right: JS; Lois Ternouth; Douglas Ternouth (Head); Hilda Price; Winifred Goodman (secretary)
p11 Dorothy Wells making a presentation to Douglas Ternouth, the Head, on his leaving the school for Wimborne [Dorset]; Christmas 1957
p12 School production of Aladdin; summer 1959
p13 Presentation of retirement gift to Mrs Dorothy Wells by Rev R F G Adams, the vicar; includes J G Humphreys, the Head; Evening Argus, May 1960
p14 Presentation of retirement gift to Hilda Price; Evening Argus, Jul 1960
Shows Rev R F G Adams; Canon Langton; J G Humphreys; Mrs M Adams
p15 First year group with a model of a train from the summer concert, 1960; country dancing group, 1962
p16 Children enacting scenes from the summer concert; Brighton Herald, 1960
p17 School staff; early summer 1960
Back row, left to right: Horace Chandler (caretaker); George Slack; JS; John Humphreys (Head); Phyllis Jansen; Derek Oliver; Hazel Mandelli
Front row, left to right: Winifred Goodman (secretary); Dorothy Wells; Hilda Price; Betty Wilson
p18 Two groups of children in costume for the summer concert; 1962
p19 St Nicolas School football team in the final of the Steaman Cup versus Hangleton at Wish Park [? Hove]; 1962
Back row, left to right: Alan Sharp; Barry Gibson; Peter Floate; Anthony Willard; Malcolm Peskett; Steven Grint; Elwyn Wickens
Front row, left to right: Stephen Robotham; Stewart Macpherson; Richard Cheal; Keith Bromley; Derek Moon
p20 Cast 2 of the nativity play at Mile Oak School; 1962
Includes Carole Bowley as Mary; Stuart Bromley as Joseph; Jennifer Marriot as Gabriel
p21 Procession to lay the foundation stone of the new school; Evening Argus, 7 Jun 1963
Left to right: F W Hart and R G Pumfrey (former pupil), churchwardens; Bishop of Lewes, the Rt Rev J H L Morrell; servers Keith Lickorish and Charles Stephens (pupils); Canon Langton
p22 The Bishop of Lewes blessing the foundation stone of the new school; Evening Argus, 7 Jun 1963
p23 John Guillum Scott laying the foundation stone for the new school; shows the vicar, the Rev V Hellaby, on the left; Brighton Herald, 7 Jun 1963
p24 First year group from the summer concert, with windmill, in the playground; 1963
p25 Cast of Ulysses in the school playground; SNA Photographic Service, 1965
p26 Knoll Boys' School drama production [Treasure Island] in the old school playground; Brighton Herald, Jul 1965
p27 Last playtime in the old school boys' playground, Jul 1967; JS at the opening of the new school, with two of her former teachers, Miss H Price (left) and Mrs K Kenward (right), Jul 1967
p28 The Bishop of Lewes blessing the new school building at its opening; Evening Argus, Jul 1967
Includes, left to right: J Humphreys (Head); the Rev K Bradshaw, curate; Canon Langton
p29 The Bishop of Lewes talking to the congregation at the opening of the new school building; Evening Argus, Jul 1967
p30 Marian Stephens, aged 11, reading the lesson at the opening of the new school; Jul 1967
p31 The choir singing the anthem at the opening of the new school; Evening Argus, Jul 1967
p32 Canon Langton and J Humphreys, the Head, presenting prizes to (left to right) Kenneth Ede, Helen Wilkes, Melody Mussell and Ian Crosthwaite; Brighton Herald, Jul 1967
p33 Class 2 in their first day in the new school; Jul 1967
p34 First sports' day on the new playing field; shows Mrs M Pigott (school governor) presenting a cup to the captains of St Andrew's House; Evening Argos, 1968
Shows pupils, left to right: Lisbeth Nielsen; Geraldine Seaton; Paul Rogers; William Clements
p35 Nativity play; Evening Argus, 1968
p36 Presentation by Mr J Stone, the party leader, to the winners of the photograph competition following the first school trip to Belgium; Brighton Herald, 1969
Shows pupils, left to right: Michael Hood; James Dixon; Kathleen Wadey; Michael Lonsdale
p37 Cast of school nativity play; 1971
p38 School netball team, the winners of the netball tournament and league; Evening Argus, 1971
Shows, left to right: Pauline Tennant; Sharon Bromley; Jacqueline Francis; Debra Vinall; Cherry Oliver; Frances Harazi; Julie Mills
p39 School staff; 1971
Back row, left to right: Mrs R Harrington; Mrs P Lewry; Miss V Brown; JS; J Stone; Mrs J Brewer; Mrs J Kenward (clerical assistant)
Seated, left to right: G Slack; Mrs E Pullen; J Humphries (Head); Mrs M Elloy; D Oliver
p40 School nativity play; Evening Argus, 1973
p41 School netball team, winners of the netball tournament; Evening Argus, 1973
Shows, left to right: Wendy Arlotte; Anita Morley; Jennifer Holmes; J Booth (Chairman of the Sports Association); Sharon Ford; Shirley Chambers; Angela Crellin; Clare Lonsdale
p42 School staff; nd, c1974
Back row, left to right: G Slack; Miss V Brown; Mrs J Brewer; Mrs M Elloy; JS; Mrs J Kenward (behind); D Oliver
Seated, left to right: Miss C Schofield; J Humphreys (Head); Mrs J Collard
p43 J G Humphries, with his wife, cutting a cake on his retirement; includes daughters Ruth Humphreys and Mrs Mary Robinson, standing behind; Evening Argus, 31 Jan 1975
p44 John Humphreys on his retirement, with school pupils; Evening Argus, 31 Jan 1975
The presentation was made by the oldest boy and girl in the school, John Shepherd and Karen Wareham. JH was the last junior head to serve in the 1872 building
p45 Presentation of flowers to Mrs O Humphreys on her husband's retirement, by Sandra Brace, aged 7; includes G Slack, acting Head (standing), and the Rev P Campbell, the vicar (seated); Evening Argus, 31 Jan 1975
p46 Netball League and cup winning netball team; Evening Argus, 1975
Left to right: Joanne Woolley; Judith Anderson; Jacqueline Silver; Angela Breder; Julie Tester; Janette Everson; Maria Fry; Mandy Hunt, reserve (at rear)
p47 Mayor and Mayoress, Councillor and Mrs Ireland, presenting prizes to the winners of the photograph and holiday diary competitions following the annual trip to Belgium; Evening Argus, 1976
Left to right: Andrew Francis; Julian Rose; Alan Hewitt; Ian Gebbett; Tracey Heard; Pauline Day; Susan Mills; Linda Collins
p49 School staff; 1978
Back row, left to right: M Thomas; G Slack; D Oliver; E Bamber
Seated, left to right: Mrs V Brown; Mrs M Elloy; Mrs J Kenward (clerical assistant); J Plumpton (Head); JS; J Brewer
p50 School staff; 1980
Back row, left to right: G Slack; Miss V Brown; Mrs J Kenward; B Rogers (on exchange from Takapuna, New Zealand)
Seated, left to right: Mrs J Brewer; Miss C Gardiner; J Plumpton; Miss S Parry; JS
p51 School netball team, the winners of the netball tournament; 1980
Standing, left to right: Miss V Brown; Wendy Jones; Toni Newland; Sharon Courtney; JS
Seated, left to right: Tamara Podmore; Amanda Baker; Maria Dale; Donna Northeast
p52 School staff photographs; 1981 (top) and 1982 (bottom)
Top photograph, back row left to right: G Slack; Miss V Brown; Mrs J Brewer; D Oliver; JS; M Thomas
Top photograph, seated left to right: Mrs J Kenward; Miss S Parry; J Plumpton; Miss K Barsby; Miss C Gardiner
Bottom photo, back row left to right: Miss S Prentice; Mrs G Wells, G Slack; Miss F Brown; JS
Bottom photo, seated left to right: D Oliver; Mrs H Hird; J Plumpton; Caroline Gardiner; M Thomas
p53 D Oliver, who served on the staff from 1959 to 1989, holding his retirement gift of a barometer; 3 Dec 1989
p54 JS on her retirement, with Charlotte Stunell and Kurtis Plank; Evening Argus, Jul 1994
JS taught Charlotte's mother, Wendy Hefferon, and grandmother, Valerie King, and Kurtis's mother, Nicola Newland, and grandmother, Jacqueline Barnard
The staff
4 Jul 1952
Back row, left to right: H Chandler; D Elder (a former prisoner-of-war of the Japanese); Mrs M Hotton; W Eastwood (caretaker)
Front row, left to right: JS; Mrs C D Wells; Miss H Price (daughter of R Price, Headteacher from 1894 to 1922); D Ternouth; Mrs W Goodman; Miss G Meek; Miss R Hinde
Coronation Day party
Held at Portslade Secondary Modern School for Girls; 3 Jun 1953
Adults standing, left to right: W Eastwood, teacher of class 2; Mrs Bateman, parent helper; D Ternouth
Coronation Day party
3 Jun 1953
As in AMS6567/1/4
School assembly for 7-8 year olds
The photograph illustrates the overcrowding at the school resulting from the post-war baby bulge; it was impossible to hold assemblies for the whole school. The girl in the foreground, nearest the camera, is Barbara Ansell who died of a brain tumour on 12 Oct 1956, aged 9 years
Blessing by the Bishop of Lewes the Rt Rev J H L Morrell
7 Jun 1963
At the laying of the foundation stone of the new school
The girls' playground during the last playtime at the old school building
Jul 1967
Shows the new building through the trees
Photocopy newscuttings
21 Feb 1957
Concerning the lack of a meals service at St Nicolas Junior School (it was the only school in East Sussex not to have one); includes photographs; Evening Argus
Newscutting and photograph
nd, [Jul 1965]
Concerning the production of Treasure Island by the boys of Knoll School, Hove, at St Nicolas School
Newscutting and photographs
13 Jul 1967
Concerning the dedication of the new school buildings by the Bishop of Lewes, the Rt Rev J H L Morrell; Evening Argus
Newscutting and photograph
nd, [1975]
Showing the presentation of the league championship netball trophy by K Beard, headmaster of Benfield School, to Joanne Woolley of St Nicolas' School
Video recordings
Compiled from 16mm film taken at the school; shows stone laying of the new school building, 1963; the building of the new school, and its dedication, 1966-1967; sports on the new school field; moving into the new school building, 1967; a day in the life of the school, 1968; 2000
Papers of George Kent (1907-1980), Chief Public Health Inspector at Chailey RDC
Source of acquisition
: AMS6568/1/1-8 were deposited 19 Sep 2000 (ACC 8208); AMS6568/2/1-4 were donated 30 Aug 2000 (ACC 8202)
Administrative history
Kent attended school in Port Talbot, and worked for a time at Price, Jenkins & Co, ship brokers, coal exporters and merchants, Port Talbot. He was appointed Additional Sanitary Inspector to the Chailey Rural District Council in July 1929, and became the youngest sanitary inspector in Great Britain in January 1930, when he was promoted following the death of Harry Weller. He was Chief Public Health Inspector at Chailey RDC for forty-one years. As Chief Billeting Officer during the Second World War, he was responsible for housing 3,000 evacuees in three days
Kent served as president of the Sussex County Rugby Football Club, and was a committee member of the Sussex County Cricket Club. He was captain of Lewes Priory Cricket Club and Lewes Rugby Football Club. He was chairman of the Lewes Building Society, then chairman of the Sussex County Building Society after its merger. He became Conservative district councillor for Kingston in 1973, and served as chairman of Lewes District Council
George Kent was married to Megan Edwards, the daughter of Mr and Mrs T Edwards of Heathfield, Sussex. She died in 1971. Kent died in 1980, and was survived by two daughters, Joanna Spence and Penny Farncombe
Personal and professional papers
Short birth certificate of George Kent
20 Sep 1969
Born 22 Apr 1907 at Margam, Neath
Album containing papers, photographs, and newscuttings relating to GK's life and career
Dec 1928 - Oct 1980
Includes: newscutting concerning the death of Harry Weller, Sanitary Inspector of Chailey RDC, nd [Nov 1929]; photograph of GK on a motorcycle registered PN 424, nd, c1928; photograph of GK with a Chailey RDC horse-drawn dustcart, nd, c1934; newscuttings with photographs concerning Lewes Priory Cricket Club, nd, c1930-1940s; Chailey RDC motor dustcart, nd, c1930s; newscuttings with photograph concerning Lewes rugby club, nd, c1930; photograph of civilian anti-gas school, course number 58, Eastwood Park, Falfield, Gloucestershire, nd, 1930s; GK's Chailey RDC identity card, Aug 1943; newscutting with photograph of Lewes Hockey Club, nd, early 1940s; certificate of thanks issued by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries to GK, as a member of the Milk Sub-Committee of the East Sussex War Agricultural Executive Committee, May 1945; newscuttings and papers concerning the Kingston village cricket club, nd, 1960s; two unidentified photographs of personnel involved in civil defence duties, nd, 1939-1945; newscutting with photograph concerning GK's retirement, nd, [1970]; photograph and cutting concerning the opening of the new offices of Hilton Properties in Hove, nd, 1970s; caricatures of Lewes Rotary Club personalities by MAC, nd, 1970s; photograph and newscutting concerning the new headquarters of the Lewes Building Society (Evening Argus), 12 Dec 1972; rules of the Lewes Bowling Green Society, 1968; GK's Conservative Party membership card, and election material for his candidature in the Lewes District Council elections, nd, 1970s; newscutting with photograph showing GK sworn in as chairman of Lewes District Council (Mid Sussex Times), 27 May 1976; photograph of the service for the opening of the Sussex Assizes, taken outside St Anne's Church, Lewes, Mar 1976; invitation, menu, place-card, and newscutting (Evening Argus), for the Lewes District Council Silver Jubilee Banquet, Feb 1977; cutting and photograph concerning the award of an MBE to GK, 1980; death of GK and the planting of a memorial tree in the garden of Lewes House, 1980
Certificates and awards granted to GK
Certificates awarded by Cardiff Technical College for courses in sanitary science, 1928; membership of the Sanitary Inspectors Association Incorporated, 20 Jun 1934; Associate Membership of the Institution of Sanitary Engineers, 11 Feb 1952; Fellowship of the Sanitary Inspectors' Association, 2 May 1952; Royal Society of Heath award of the designation F[ellowship] R[oyal] S[ociety] H[ealth], 9 Jul 1957; HRH The Duke of Edinburgh's President's certificate for contribution to the work of the National Playing Fields Association, 1972
Testimonials for GK
Dec 1928 - Nov 1951
In connection with his applications for other posts, and for membership of the Institute of Sanitary Engineers
GK's diary
Includes entries concerning his interview at Lewes and appointment by Chailey RDC, 8 Jul 1929; funeral of [Harry] Weller, 26 Nov 1929; appointment as Chief Sanitary Inspector, 20 Dec 1929
Chailey Rural District News
Apr 1969
Contains a note concerning GK's career
Two Lewes District Council election leaflets concerning GK's candidature
nd, 1970s
Papers concerning the award of the MBE to GK
Nov 1979 - Jan 1980
Greetings telegram and card
Jan 1980
Congratulating GK on the award of the MBE from Rupert Nevill, Isfield, and Julia [Cumberledge], Vuggles Farm, Newick
Papers relating to the contruction and furnishing of Barn Acre, Juggs Lane, Kingston
Barn Acre was GK's family home; he formerly lived at 7 Wallands Crescent, Lewes
Construction specifications
Apr 1935
Sealed Chailey RDC planning permission
10 May 1935
Granted to T Edwards [GK's father-in-law], 197 Victoria Street, London
nd, 1935
Including elevation, section and ground plans; plan of the building plot
Correspondence and invoices concerning the building and furnishing of the house
Includes copy mortgage between GK and his aunt, Mary Hannah Kent, 19 Broad Street, Port Talbot, Glamorgan, 28 Dec 1935; Jan 1935 - Nov 1950
Includes a reference to the property being built on three plots of land belonging to H F Howell
Photocopies from microfilm of Bodleian Library MS Rolls Sussex
Archival history
Paper print-out of the West Sussex documents on the film has been transferred to WSRO, where it is listed as MP 4488-93
Source of acquisition
: Photocopies taken from microfilm purchased 14 April 2000 (ACC 8117)
Copies information
: These copies have been printed from a microfilm of all the Sussex Rolls at the Bodleian Library, XA 79
Rental of the manor of Bishopstone
Archival history
MS Rolls Sussex 1
(Southern portion only); includes transcript; 21 H6 (1442-1443)
Free tenants at Bremelyng, Yeverington and Beverington in Eastbourne, Clapham in Litlington and Litlington, including the advowson, 'Chalvington in the parish of Ripe' and Bishopstone; tithes of the pannage of Ashdown and of Laughton and Waldron; farms of sheep-pasture of Heighton Down and Winton Down [in Alfriston], of the dove-cot and the milk of ewes; customary tenants at Bishopstone (including at The Ferry); free tenants at Norton in Bishopstone and Beddingham, customary tenants at Norton in Bishopstone, free and customary tenants at Denton, customary tenant in Arlington, farms of Crallebroke and Twyrede [?in Chalvington]
Account of John Lake, bishop of Chichester
Archival history
MS Rolls Sussex 2
As collector of the tithe of the clergy in his diocese due to the king, by Nathaniel Powell, gent, his sub-collector and deputy, 1684-1685, entered in the office of First Fruits and Tenths, 29 Jun 1686
Court rolls of the hallmoot of Stoneham [in South Malling]
Nov 1451 - Sep 1460
Archival history
MS Rolls Sussex 3
Courts held before Bartholomew Bolney as bailiff of the archbishop of Canterbury; tenements in the boroughs of Norlington, Wellingham, Middleham and Ashton in Ringmer and Southerham in South Malling
Enrolled decrees placing the abbot and convent of Bayham in possession of the church of Hailsham
Feb 1286
The certificate of [Richard Gravesend], bishop of London, of the confirmation of the execution of the decrees, is largely illegible
Archival history
MS Rolls Sussex 4
The roll is badly damaged at head and foot but contains two decrees and a certificate, of which the two decrees seem to contain largely the same text and need to be read together
It forms part of the archive of Bayham Abbey, other parts of which are contained in Bodleian Library MS Sussex Charters. The context of the decrees was a dispute between Bayham Abbey and Robert de Blatchington and Michelham Priory over the status of the church and the ownership of the advowson, which began in 1279 and was finally arbitrated by the archbishop of Canterbury in 1296. The circumstances are fully explained by L F Salzmann, History of Hailsham (Lewes, 1901) 97-105, which refers to this and other documents and prints the entire text of the award
The first decree, probably of the prior of Southwark and the archdeacon of Surrey, probably begins with the same text as the second; it goes on to order the denunciation of Master [Robert de Blechinton, rector of Old Shoreham], for the occupation of the church of Hailsham and damage to its manor against a former decree, in contempt of the apostolic see and to the prejudice [of the abbot and convent of Bayham], and that he should be warned to restore the revenues which he had taken during his occupation within a week, under pain of excommunication; Southwark, 14 Feb 1286
The second decree, of the sub-prior and precentor of Southwark as delegates of the prior and the archdeacon of Surrey, deputies (with the archdeacon of Winchester) of the apostolic see, to the deans of Pevensey, Chichester and Malling [in Kent]; recites the despoilation by Master Robert de Blechinton, rector of Old Shoreham, of the church or chapel of Hailsham, dependent on the church of Hellingly, from the abbot and convent of Bayham, and a former decree ordering restitution; that Bayham had been unable to regain possession for a year or more on account of the power of their adversaries; orders the deans to excommunicate anyone impeding the induction of the abbot and convent; continues as the first decree; Southwark, 14 Feb 1286
Court roll of the manor of Herstmonceux
3 Nov 1379
Archival history
MS Rolls Sussex 5
Roll of estreats of courts held at Rye
Oct 1276 - Sep 1277
Archival history
MS Rolls Sussex 10; Phillipps MS 31947; Sotheby 30.6.[19]36 [lot 460]
Related information
: The roll is struck through, indicting that the sums had been included on the account as a total. For Rye bailiffs' accounts for 1272-1274 and 1280-1288, see PRO SC6/1028/8-10
The roll records the amercements imposed at 24 three-weekly sessions of the king's court and two assizes of bread held at Rye in the fourth and fifth years of Edward 1. The sums are almost exclusively in respect of compromises, false claims, convictions and failures to prosecute in pleas of trespass and debt
Endorsed: beginning of account of Henry Paulyn, [bailiff of Rye], 1276-1277
Exemplification of the customs of the town and lowey of Pevensey
30 Sep 1356
Archival history
MS Rolls Sussex 11; Phillipps MS 34670; Sotheby 30.6.[19]36 [lot 471]
Supplementary information
: A transcript of the document, then in the hands of Lady Peachey at Glyndleigh in Westham, was made for Sir William Burrell between 1773 and 1780 (BL, Add MS 5701, ff. 163-8), and see Farrant (ed), 'Sussex depicted' (Sussex Record Society 85 (2001) 133-4)
: The document, then in collection of Sir Edward Dering at Surrenden in Kent, was published by Lambert Larkin in SAC 4 (1851) 209-218
Papers of Margaret Elsie Hughes (1898-1981), relating to Queenwood School, Eastbourne, and work as a land girl during the First World War
Source of acquisition
: Donated 4 Oct 2000 (ACC 8222), and 6 Nov 2001 (ACC 8445)
Related information
: For a copy of Dorothea Petrie Carew's history of the school, 1871-1942 entitled Many Years, Many Girls (1967) see ACC 6640/1; for correspondence between Hilda ('Sebastian') and her parents, Harry and Nellie Gosling, while at the school, 1912-1913 see ACC 5456
Administrative history
Margaret Elsie Hughes (known as Margôt) was born on 26 Dec 1898, and was the only child of Bradley and Elsie Hughes, who lived in Kirby Muxloe, near Leicester. Bradley worked in the family's hosiery firm; his father-in-law, William Tyler, was also a hosier and amalgamated his firm with that of R Walker to create hosiery and knitwear
MEH's mother, Elsie, was drowned, aged 27, in 1902 while on a family holiday at Sheringham, Norfolk. HEH was also swept into the sea but was rescued. After her mother's death, she lived with her father and paternal grandmother in Leicester until her grandmother's death. Her father, an amateur artist, left the family firm and joined Ackermann, the art dealers in London, and was later sent to their New York and Chicago branches
MEH then lived with her maternal grandparents in Leicester and their family of five until they both died in 1906. She was then brought up by her two unmarried aunts, who moved to Kirby Muxloe. The eldest son of the family acted as her guardian. She was a weekly boarder at Kelland College, Leicester, from about the age of six. She was then educated at Queenwood School from 1914 to 1916
On leaving Queenwood, MEH returned to her aunt's home in Kirby Muxloe. She was a good amateur pianist, and was involved in local music-making, particularly as an accompanist. She worked as a volunteer on the wards of wounded First World War soldiers at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. In 1925 she married Herbert Owen Wilshere, a stockbroker in the family firm of Wilshere Baldwin and Co; they lived at Greenways, 7 Gillet Lane, Kirby Muxloe. Owen died in 1962; the couple had two sons and a daughter
Queenwood School had its origins in a boarding school for English girls opened in 1861 by Mrs Ogier Ward at 4 rue Bagatelle, Caen; in 1870 it moved to 2 rue Pierre Corneille, St Germain-en-Laye near Paris. However, due to the effects of the Franco-Prussian War, in July 1871 the school moved to temporary accommodation at Hyndford House, Bourne Street in Eastbourne. During the autumn of 1871 it moved into permanent premises at 23-24 Hyde Gardens, Eastbourne and in 1884 to larger premises in the nearby Wilmington Gardens; the school was then known as St Germains. In 1890 the school moved to 1-2 Stavely Road and was renamed Queenwood. Due to its success it moved to new premises in Darley Road in 1906 which were designed by Sir James Carmichael, whose daughter was a pupil at the school
In June 1940 the school was evacuated: two thirds of the girls returned to their own homes, while the remainder went to the former vicarage at Holt in Dorset. In September 1940 Queenwood moved to Malvern where they were housed in the Junior House of Ellerslie School. However, the school soon moved to the former Birklands School, Kent Road, Harrogate. Shortly afterwards the decision was taken to close the school due to the difficulties in carrying on a boarding school in wartime conditions and in an alien place
The premises in Eastbourne were sold to Eastbourne County Borough Council on 18 July 1949 and were used for the Eastbourne Training College for Women (EMA 57), which in 1976 became the Eastbourne College of Higher Education. It now forms part of the University of Brighton and houses the Queenwood Library
In 1925 Miss Grace Carola Lawrence, the eldest daughter of Mrs Lawrence, who had been the principal from 1890 until 1899, founded Queenwood School at Sydney in New South Wales, Australia
Summary of contents
AMS6570/1/1-2 Photographs; 1914-1917
AMS6570/2/1-2 School magazines; 1914-1924
AMS6570/3/1-4 Papers relating to MEH's school career; 1914-1925
AMS6570/4/1 Biographical notes; 2000
AMS6570/5/1 Papers relating to Martita Hunt; 1915
AMS6570/6/1-2 Other records; Jan 1914 - Apr 1921
Principals of the school
Mrs Ogier Ward, 1862-1890
Mrs Lawrence, 1890-1899
Miss Chudleigh and Miss Johns, 1899-1920
Miss McCall and Mrs Trant, 1920
Mrs Trant and Miss Hulbert, 1920-1924
Mrs Trant, 1924-1936
Miss Burt, 1936-1942
Miss Burt and Miss Wynne Burt, 1940-1942
Loose pages from an album
The pages from the album are in a very fragile condition. Many of the photographs are undated; where this is the case, the photographs should be assumed to fall between the covering dates given
p1 Postcard of Queenwood School exterior, showing girls on the sports field in the foreground; nd, c1914
Mounted inside the front cover of the album
p2 School exterior; Miss Chudleigh; Queenwood Lodge
p3 Four photographs of teachers sitting outside the school; includes Miss Johns, Miss Chudleigh and Miss Marion
p4 Queenwood Lodge; Eastbourne from the Downs; girls sitting on the terrace
p5 Girls playing netball on The Rink; exterior of prefects' lodge
p6 Prefects, 1915: V Hodges; N Kirkham, E Peacey, D Stubbs, K Howson, M Peckham, M Moore, L Shultz
p7 Pupils: MEH, Elsie, Pecky, Kathleen, Nellie, Mabel; school exterior
p8 Pupils Mabel and Kathleen
p9 Interiors of dormitory bedrooms; view of Eastbourne from the window
p10 Pupils including Lulu, Mabel, Kathleen, Elsie
p11 Pupils Muriel Pool, Beryl Ripley and May Haden
p12 Three photographs of pupils including Phyllis Ward, 1914 and 1917
p13 Miss Chudleigh, Miss Johns, Miss ? Marwick
p14 Includes Miss Marion and D Holmes
p15 Includes Miss Millet and Miss Alborough, and pupils Muriel and Molly
p16 Includes Miss Alborough and Miss Dunlop
p17 Pupils and teachers; includes Miss David (top left and bottom right)
p18 Includes Miss ? Booling (top left); Miss Campbell ? matron (middle top); Miss Moon, matron (top right); Miss Mann and Miss Moon (bottom right)
p19 Includes Miss Johnson and Ashy [Miss Ashenden] (top middle); Miss Moon, [Miss] Gillard and [Miss] Johnson by an open ground floor window (top right); Miss Morris (bottom left); Miss Mann (middle bottom); Miss Donnington (bottom right)
p20 Includes Ashy ? at Pevensey Castle (top left); [Miss] Gillard, [Miss] Cross, Ashy, Mlle Becker and [Miss] Maddison (top right)
p21 Top left: staff and pupils
Shows (back row, left to right): Miss Gillard, Miss Moon, Miss Morris and Miss Campbell
(Front row, left to right): Joyce, Muriel, Pecky, Phyllis, Lilian and Vera
Top right: class photograph
Back row, left to right: M Lawes, M Parkinson, P ? Birt; D Kirkham
Middle row, left to right: unidentified; C Wilson; unidentified; Miss Spencer; three unidentified
Front row, left to right: Crawford; V Lees; S Milne; S Nahabedian; Gill-Mark; P Channing; D Macdonald; unidentified
Bottom left: pupils outside the school entrance, Empire Day; 1917
Bottom right: form Lower V; 1916
Back row, left to right: F Wilson; N Proctor; O Rae; K Parnell; D Walker; G Dillingham; P Ward; ? K Searl; M Ivens
Front row, left to right: M Haden; M Pool; V Braby; D Weesner
p22 Stella (left); Mabel (right)
p23 Mabel (left); Gwen and Mabel (right)
p24 Four photographs of a picnic; 1916
p25 Includes: C Smith and K Hodges (top left); ? Marge, Mabel and Kathleen (top middle); V and F Braby (top right); Kathleen on the beach, ?Eastbourne (bottom centre); Mabel and Kathleen (bottom right)
p26 Mabel and MEH
p27 MEH (left); ? Lucy Waley (top centre); Doris and ?Katie (centre bottom); Doris (bottom right)
p28 Includes: girls in a race balancing on flowerpots, showing Katie (top left) and D Ashdown, L Clarke and M Lanes (top right); Winnie Walker with dog, Jack, in school grounds (top centre); Sybil Grey (bottom left) and Madge Whitburn on the tennis courts (bottom right)
p29 Includes: Vivien Lees (top left); Dorice, Mary and Hope (top centre); Gertrude with hockey stick outside the school (top right); Debbie and unidentified girl entering school by french windows (bottom right)
p30 Frances, Dorothea and Eamée (top left); Eamée (top centre); E Chapelle (top right); D Wilkinson (bottom left); Dorothea and Eamée (bottom centre); N Grange, D Wilkinson and A ? Bolles (bottom right)
p31 Ashy (left and right); MEH on a road near the school (centre)
p32 Top right: pupils P Chantrey, M Lawes, unidentified; D Walker, P Wilson, V Braby, G Millns, L Schultz (top right)
Bottom right: Old Girls Hockey Team, half term, Nov 1916
Back row, left to right: G Dillingham; N Proctor; A Gilbert; unidentified; M Hunt
Front row, left to right: E Peacey; M Hughes; B Quibell; E Burr; D Stubbs
p33 Four photographs of D Ashenden (Ashy) and Gilly
p34-35 Ashy, MEH, and other pupils, at Eastbourne beach, baths, and Belle Tout lighthouse; includes Ashy swimming, with bathing machines and the Redoubt in the background; pupils by the bathing machines
p36 Pupils at the Tiger Inn, Eastdean: Stubbie, Ashy, Lilian, Olive, [Miss] Gillard and Nora
p37 Olive and Lilian (top left); Gilly, Olive, Norah and Ashy on the Downs (centre); Stubbie (top left); MEH (bottom left); Norah (bottom right)
p38 Includes Ashy; MEH; the school gym
p39 Stella (top left); D Stubbs, L Clarke, N Proctor and D Gradwell with tennis rackets; tennis players including L Clarke and D Stubbs; Lilian (bottom right)
p40 Groups of pupils, including Muriel Stephens climbing up a post
p41 The Harrying of the Dove, a masque: M ? Johnson as Britannia; V Lees as Flanders, Belgium; G Williamson as St George
p42 As p41 above: D Nahabedian as a jester; G Millns; D Gradwell as Luxury Pleasure
p43 Beach Head and lighthouse; pupils on the Downs and the beach
p44 Interiors of Ashy's room
p45 Interiors of the school dining room, school hall, and gym
p46 Fragments including Ashy at Belle Tout lighthouse; MEH; pupils at bathing machines, Eastbourne
With photographs of MEH's work as a land girl, fruit-picking on Wootton Farm [Wootton, Kent]; 1917
Identified as Wootton in Kent, because MEH mentioned that she had picked fruit in Kent to her daughter. The photographs include some former pupils of Queenwood School
School magazines
The Eaglet
May 1914 - Sep 1918
The Eaglet
Jan 1919 - Sep 1924
Papers of M E Hughes relating to her school career
School reports in portfolio
Jul 1914 - Jul 1916
Stamped with the school crest and motto
Three certificates
Jun 1914
Issued to MEH by The Royal Drawing Society
Notebook listing music studied by MEH
Membership card for Queenwood Old Girls' Association
Issued to MEH, Elmcroft, Kirby Fields, Leicester
Biographical notes
Notes concerning MEH written by her daughter
nd, [2000]
Papers relating to Martita Hunt
Timetable and examination papers
For the Oxford Senior Local Examination, at Eastbourne Centre; 1915
The papers belonged to Martita Hunt (1900-1969), who was also educated at Queenwood School. Martita was a stage, film and radio actress, known for her portrayal of Miss Haversham in the film of Great Expectations
Other records
Autograph book of MEH, Elmcroft, Kirby Fields, Leicester
Jan 1914 - Apr 1921
Includes paintings and drawings, some by pupils of Queenwood School
Badge for drill awarded to MEH
Map of the enclosure of Seaford Down
Source of acquisition
: Document purchased 1 December 2000 (ACC 8248)
Related information
: For settlements of the Chowne manor of Seaford, 1703-1710 and 1720-1808, see AMS5717, 6454/48
'Seaford Down Measured January the 27th 1759'
Plan of Down Furlong and Sandcliff, between Seaford Down and the sea, showing land in 28 strips (Down Furlong) and 10 strips (Sandcliff); shows survey-points and the distances between them
Ink and colour on paper, 9½" x 14½"; endorsed: elaborately written In, flanked by delicate drawings of flowers, perhaps a rose and a pink
On the right of the map are tables of reference to each furlong list number of strip, owner, the length of each boundary expressed in links, the strip-number repeated and the contents in acres and rods
On the left of the map are calculations, based on links, to determine the acreage
At the foot of the map are tables showing total acreages of each owner, expressed in both tenant-measure (124 or 126 rods to an acre) and land-measure (124 rods to an acre), and details of an exchange between Mr Farncomb and Mr Harison
As well as Church Land, the owners involved are [Thomas] Chown, [Lancelot] Harison, John Bean, John Bodle and [William] Farncomb
This map is possibly a final draft drawn up when Seaford Down was enclosed. The resulting allotments were subsequently exchanged, and by 1772 the entire area shown was owned by Lancelot Harison and John Bodle, 'according to the recent exchanges which have been thereof lately made' (AMS3430)
It is clear from the OS map of 1873 that it was already difficult to discern the boundaries of this map at that time, but they are clearly shown on a map of 1624 by John de Ward (SEA 688). That difficulty may already have existed in 1759: SEA 689, a copy of the 1624 map drawn in about 1750, may well have been prepared in preparation for the enclosure. De Ward's map shows a watch-house and 'host', perhaps a limekiln, on the cliffe-edge; by 1759 the area had been washed away by the sea
Source of acquisition
: The records were donated 27 Jul 2000 (ACC 8183)
Administrative history
The papers listed here were accumulated by Lydia Brand (née Verrall), and include her diaries and those of her sister, Ruth Caroline. Both were daughters from the second marriage of William Verrall (1808-1872) to Caroline Funnell. Notes concerning family members whose papers are in this list appear below. For genealogical notes, see AMS6572/8/1-2
Richard Verrall (1798-1838)
Richard is thought to have taken over the lease of Swanborough Farm, Iford, from John Verrall Tourle, the son of William and Betty Tourle, of Swanborough in 1822. Betty was his great-aunt. He was distantly related to the other members of the Verrall family who appear in this list; the common ancestor was William Verrall who married Grace Sanders in 1687 and subsequently occupied Court House Farm, Lewes
Richard died in 1838, while his eldest son, John, was still a minor. Earl of De La Warr is listed as the landowner of Swanborough Farm in the Iford tithe award of 1842 (TD/E 61), and the farm was occupied by Richard's executors. William Verrall the elder (listed below) probably worked as the farm bailiff for some years, before the John was able to take the farm over
William Verrall the elder (1808-1872)
Verrall was born at Telscombe; the children by his first marriage to Elizabeth Ann Snashall (1802-1836) were William (born 1833), John (born 1835) and Mary Ann (born 1836). He married Caroline Funnell in 1844, and had four children: Jacob (1844-1919), Esther Lucy (1845-1910), Lydia (1847-1928), and Ruth Caroline (1850-)
Verrall was a farm bailiff, and was probably bailiff of Swanborough Farm, Iford; for further details, see the note on Richard Verrall above. In the 1841 census William Verrall was living in the farmhouse, while his children lived with his father, also called William, in a farm cottage. William's occupation is still given as farm bailiff in 1851, but he was then living at 1 Swanburgh Cottages, Iford, which was probably the cottage where his father and children were living in 1841. John Verrall was living alone in the farmhouse
He is thought to have become tenant of Itford Farm, Beddingham, in 1854 (AMS6572/8/2). He remained there until his death
William Verrall the younger (1833-1902)
William was the eldest child from the marriage of William Verrall (see above) to Elizabeth Ann Snashall. He married Martha Luck on 20 July 1864. At the time of the 1871 census he was living with Martha near the Abergavenny Arms public house, Rodmell. His occupation was relieving officer
Lydia Brand (née Verrall) (1847-1928)
Lydia, born in 1847, was the second daughter of William Verrall and Caroline Funnell. She married Edmund George Brand, a draper, of Seaford, at Beddingham on 15 July 1874. Brand's father, also called Edmund, was steward to Sir Charles W Blunt of Heathfield. Lydia and Edmund lived at 1 Gloucester Place, Seaford, where Edmund ran a linen draper's shop. Edmund became a member of Seaford Urban District Council, and was an Income Tax Commissioner. Their children were William Edmund (born 23 Apr 1875), Ernest (born 23 Feb 1877), Edmund George (born 29 Nov 1878), Percy (born 15 Oct 1880), Lydia Nora (born 6 Sep 1882; died 1 Feb 1886), Mildred (born 22 Sep 1884), Ella (born 13 Aug 1886) and William Alfred (born 13 Jul 1888). The couple later moved to The Bays, Lyndhurst Road, Worthing. Lydia died in 1928
Ruth Caroline Morris (née Verrall) (1850-)
Ruth Caroline (known as Caroline) was born in 1850 and was the third daughter of William Verrall and Caroline. She married Cornelius Morris, a master mariner, at Beddingham on 6 April 1874. Cornelius was the son of Ebenezer Morris, who owned an ironmonger's shop in Cliffe High Street, Lewes. Cornelius was swept overboard and drowned when working as chief officer of the Kayosch during a voyage to Labrador in August 1877. Caroline then lived with her brother Jacob; her occupation is given as bookkeeper in the 1881 census, but she assumed the duties of housekeeper after the marriage of her sister, Esther Lucy
Jacob Verrall (1844-1919)
Jacob was the eldest child of William Verrall and Caroline Funnell, and lived with his parents to the time of William Verrall's death in 1872. He probably succeeded to the tenancy of Itford Farm, but was living at Rodmell by 1881, when his occupation is given as miller. A newscutting concerning the demolition of Rodmell windmill in 1912 notes that it was owned by the Glazebrook family for a long period, and was then owned by Jacob for thirty-five years, before being sold to E Skinner shortly before its demolition. This would indicate that the windmill was purchased shortly after Jacob's father died. Jacob also farmed land at Southease. He held several public offices, including collector of the water scot, correspondent to the School Managers, and assistant overseer for Southease and Rodmell. Jacob married Lydia Ann Baker 31 August 1910; she died 7 August 1912. Jacob died 10 March 1919. A note against his burial entry in the Rodmell register (PAR 464/1/5/1) states Late of Itford and Southease Farms/a man of wonderful memory and exemplary church attendance. He left considerable copyhold and freehold property in the Rodmell area, including Monks House, Rodmell, which was sold to Leonard Sidney Woolf, the writer and husband of the author Virginia Woolf
Summary of contents
AMS6572/1 Papers relating to Richard Verrall; nd, c1838
AMS6572/2 Papers of William Verrall the elder; 1854-1855
AMS6572/3 Papers of William Verrall the younger; 1842
AMS6572/4 Diaries of Lydia Brand (née Verrall); 1868-1883
AMS6572/5 Other papers of Lydia Brand; [1846]-nd [1975]
AMS6572/6 Diaries of Ruth Caroline Morris (née Verrall); 1882-1896
AMS6572/7 Papers relating to Jacob Verrall; 1873
AMS6572/8 Genealogical notes; [1687]-2000
Papers relating to Richard Verrall
Copy letter
Written by Richard Verrall, Swansburgh Farm [Swanborough Farm, Iford], to a friend, concerning his illness and approaching death; nd, c1838
The letter was written just before Richard's death
Papers of William Verrall, the elder
Two letters to Mr [William] Verrall
From his son Jacob Verrall, Cliffe House Academy, informing his father of the approaching Christmas vacation; 6 Dec 1854 and 12 Dec 1855
Papers of William Verrall, the younger
Copy-book of William Verrall
At Mr [John] Dudeney's School, [Lewes]
Diaries of Lydia Brand (née Verrall)
Apr 1868 - Oct 1868
At back: poems, some of which were written by Lydia, riddles, and bon mots; Jan 1869 - May 1872
Although based at Itford Farm, Beddingham, with her parents at the time that the diary was written, Lydia seems to have been a resident teacher at a local girls' school; the diary includes references to social visits to neighbouring villages and to Lewes; mentions acquaintances by name; visits to chapel; visit to the athletic sports at the Dripping Pan, Lewes, 29 Apr 1868; the militia in Lewes quarrelling and fighting on their disbandment, 30 May 1868; her father selling lambs at St John's Fair, 6 Jul 1868; visit to St Michael's Sunday School treat held in Mr Scobell's field, 9 Sep 1868
Jan 1882 - Apr 1883
Lydia was married and living in Seaford when this diary was compiled. Includes mainly brief references to illnesses of Lydia's children; visit to the wreck of a large screw-steamship that came ashore, which carried silks, tea, coffee, and spices, Feb 1882; visit to Newhaven to see the new [harbour] works, 19 Mar 1882; death of Aunt Alfred [? Funnell], 24 Mar 1882; visit to a sale at Exceat Farm [in Westdean], 14 Apr 1882; taking Ernie, George and Percy to Brighton to have their portrait [photographs] taken, 28 Jun 1882 and 13 Jul 1882; grandfather's house being broken into, and grandma suffering a paralytic stroke, 1 Jul 1882; Dr Luck vaccinating baby, 6 Feb 1883
At front: newscutting concerning the presentation of silver cups to [Lydia's father-in-law] Edmund Brand, steward to Sir Charles W Blunt at Heathfield, in recognition of his services as Guardian and Surveyor to the parishioners of Heathfield, and to Edward Hobden; 14 Feb 1882
Note concerning the marriage of Edmund George Brand and Lydia Verrall at Beddingham Church, 15 Jul 1874; births of their children William Edmund Brand, 23 Apr 1875, Ernest Brand, 23 Feb 1877, Edmund George Brand, 29 Nov 1878, and Percy Brand, 15 Oct 1880
At back: poems In Memoriam. Frank Ernest Longley. Born May 1st 1880. Died November 27th 1883, ? by Lydia Brand; nd, c1883; One Whole Home is with the Angels by Mrs [Lydia] Sigourney, 11 Feb 1886
Other papers of Lydia Brand
Photograph of Lydia Verrall (later Brand)
nd, c1870
Photocopy scrapbook of newscuttings
Compiled initially by Lydia, with later additions; [1846] - nd [1975]
At front: notes concerning the Brand and Verrall families, including dates of birth, marriages and deaths; [1846] - Jul 1951
p2 Marriage of Alice Barber to Lauchlan Cameron, Seaford; death and funeral of Alfred Funnell, Grange Road [Lewes]; 13 Feb 1903
p3 Marriage of Gertrude May Brand, second daughter of [Lydia's brother-in-law] J E Brand, The Grove, Hooe to Dennett Cooke, at Hooe; 26 Aug 1901
p4 Marriage of Edward Borer Matthew to Mary Kate, elder daughter of the late George Verrall of Telscombe, at Aldrington; 1910
p5 Death of Harriet, widow of George Verrall of Telscombe, aged 83; 1912
p11 Death of Esther Lucy Allen, wife of William Allen, 23 Oct 1910; demolition of Rodmell windmill, Rodmell Hill, 27 Jan 1912; death of William Hugh Verrall, aged 50, at Darenth House, Slough [Buckinghamshire], second son of the late George Verrall, Telscombe, Jun 1916
Lydia's sister Esther Lucy Verrall married William Allen on 31 Mar 1886, and they went out to California in 1888. She died at San Raphael
p12 Death by drowning of Cornelius Morris (son of Lydia's brother-in-law Ebenezer Morris of Cliffe, Lewes), the chief officer of the Kayosch, on a voyage to Labrador; Aug 1877
p16 Marriage at Worthing of Richard Long and Ella Brand, second daughter of Mr and Mrs E G Brand, The Bays, Worthing; 1917
p17 Marriage of Edith Emilie Brand, daughter of Mr and Mrs J E Brand, of The Grove, Hooe, to Theodore James Holmden, Forest Row; 10 Apr 1912
p19 Funeral of Lydia Verrall, wife of Jacob Verrall at Rodmell, nd, [Aug 1912]; death of Jacob Verrall, 10 Mar 1919
p24 Golden Wedding of Edmund George and Lydia Brand, married 15 Jul 1874; 1924
p25 Handbill listing candidates for the Seaford Urban District Council, including E[dmund] G[eorge] Brand; marked with the total number of votes cast for the candidates; Mar 1904
p39 Centenary of Verrall and Son, solicitors, Worthing; nd, [1975]
The firm was founded in 1875 by William Frederick Verrall at Brunswick Terrace, Worthing, and moved to The Hollies, Chapel Road, Worthing, in 1885. William Frederick was the son of William Verrall, who was vestry clerk of Broadwater, clerk to Worthing local board of health, and Worthing borough's first town clerk. There was not a direct relationship to members of the Verrall family listed here
Inland Revenue succession duty receipted account and probate valuation for the estate of Jacob Verrall
[1919] - Apr 1920
Lydia and Edmund Brand were Jacob Verrall's executors. The probate valuation contains a list of Verrall's real estate that was for sale, with names of vendors and prices realized, where applicable: The Post Office, Piddinghoe (copyhold), formerly called Hylands (sold to Portland Cement and Limestone Co); house called Bibles, and adjoining house, shop and cottage (copyhold), Rodmell; cottage and garden called Harping Hill, and two adjoining cottages (copyhold), Piddinghoe (sold to C B O Clarke); house in The Street, Rodmell and piece of land, Rodmell (sold to D R Smith); three pieces of land at the cross roads, Rodmell, with detached dwelling house, forge and stores (sold to C Dean and N H J Baird); dwelling house, garden and outbuildings (part freehold and part copyhold) in the Street, Rodmell [Monks House] (sold to Leonard Woolf)
Sale particulars
Of part of the Marquess of Abergavenny's estates, including marsh grazing land at The Pells (9a 3r 37p), and other portions of marsh grazing land in Southover, Lewes, let to R W E Morse; Rise Farm, Southover, Lewes (111a 1r 22p); Northease Farm, Rodmell (1047a 3r 30p); Rodmell Farm, Rodmell (706a 3r 13p); The Abergavenny Arms, Rodmell; butcher's shop and house, and other properties, Rodmell; marsh grazing land near Pevensey Bridge on the Pevensey-Battle Road, on the Pevensey-Hooe Road, and at Bexhill; plans given; for auction by Langridge & Freeman, 28 Apr 1919
Annotated with prices fetched at auction; includes property held by Jacob Verrall on yearly tenancies, consisting of land with wheelwright's shop, carpenter's shop, sawpit and pigsty, adjoining the site of the old windmill, Rodmell, and part of a garden belonging to a cottage, Rodmell
Sale particulars
1 Jul 1919
Of Denton Hill Farm, Newhaven (530a); plan given; for auction by Hampton and Sons with JR Thornton
Diaries of Ruth Caroline Morris (née Verrall)
The diaries include references to family, local and national events, including weather conditions and local illnesses. As well as the Verrall and Morris families, there are references to other relations and friends by name, including members of the Brand, Chester, Funnell, Glazebrook, Kent, Gorringe, Osborn and Elphick families. Mentions journeys away from home, including London. Lists books that she has read
Jan 1882 - Dec 1884
Includes references to visits to Seaford to see the steamship Gannet ashore nearly opposite the Martello tower, with a cargo that included tea, cotton and linseed, Feb 1882; visits to an exhibition in Lewes, and lending the van to the Rev [Peter] de Putron, the rector of Rodmell to take the Telscombe choir, Feb 1882; execution of Dr [G H] Lamson for the murder by poisoning of his deformed brother in law [Percy M John], 17 Mar 1882 and 27/28 Apr 1882; the moving of Jumbo the elephant from the zoo to Milwall docks, 24 Mar 1882; exploring the new harbour works at Newhaven, 27 Jul 1882; reopening of Piddinghoe church by the Bishop of Chichester, 24 Nov 1882; visit of Jake [Jacob Verrall] to Chailey to look over Sir G Shiffner's farms and his advice that they have a proper manager, 19 Jan 1883; enlargement of Asham House [in Beddingham] and works in the garden, 1 Feb 1883; watching the review of volunteer troops, 26 Mar 1883; a disaster in Sunderland where 197 children were trampled to death, 18 Jun 1883; cases of cholera, 8 Jul 1883; visit to Seaford to see where the sea has washed away the whole front of the battery, 5 Dec 1883; newspaper article concerning Dr Pain who was committed to prison for receiving a ward in Chancery as a boarder, when living with a woman who was not his wife, 26 Jan 1884; account of a collision between two ships The City of Lucknow and Simla and consumption of casks of spirit washed ashore, that has resulted in local deaths from alcohol poisoning, 4 Feb 1884; fire at Rodmell Close in the cottage occupied by the Hollingdale family, 27 Feb 1884; earthquake shock in three or four counties, that was felt in the Strand, London, 22 Apr 1884; birth and christening of Lydia [Brand]'s new baby, Mildred, 11 and 23 Nov 1884; enlistment of James [?Kent] in the Bechuana Corps, 3 Dec 1884
Jan 1885 - Dec 1888
Includes references to an accident on Cliffe Bridge, Lewes, when one of Mr Wilmshurst's sons was killed by a van, 20 Jan 1885; death of General Gordon, 7 Feb 1885; Lee sentenced to death for murdering his mistress, 7 Feb 1885; Mrs William Morris, Castle Lodge, Lewes, suffering from cancer and subsequent death, 18 Apr 1885, and 18 and 25 Aug 1885; funeral of Ruth Welland, 14 Jun 1885; James Kent had his head broken at a Liberal meeting at Piddinghoe and Rodmell, 20 Nov 1885; election, and result, 4 and 5 Dec 1885; death of Lydia's daughter Nora [Brand], (on 1 Feb 1886), 2 and 3 Feb 1886; funeral of the Rev E Green at Seaford, 11 Feb 1886; marriage of Esther [Verrall], 31 Mar 1886; fire at the Cliffe, Lewes, that damaged J Night's workshop, one of Strickland's warehouses and part of Monk's stables, 14 Aug 1886; Gausden family deaths (Mr [Charles Henry] Gausden [of Hastings, auctioneer] suddenly in his bed, Fred Gausden's aunt through strangulation, and her husband with his throat cut) "all through the wife's drinking habits", 21 Sep 1886; fire at the Newhaven London/Paris new refreshment rooms, 26 Nov 1887; suicide by hanging of Mr Bailey, clerk of the Newhaven Guardians, 14 Jan 1888; Whitechapel murder, 10 Nov 1888; dismissal of the Colgate [Thomas Colgate, land agent] by Lord Hampden, 31 Dec 1888
Jan 1889 - Sep 1891
Retirement of Uncle Alfred [Funnell] from business and his move to 1 Grange Road, Lewes, 1 Jan 1889; Father Prendergast, the Roman Catholic priest, collapsed and died at Southover, 12 Jan 1889; [Florence] Maybrick condemned to death for poisoning her husband, 10 Aug 1889; Rev de Putron's brother-in-law shot himself, 19 Oct 1889; Stephen Kent died on a trip to London, 11 Nov 1890; John Morris was suspended by the Brighton Guardians for neglecting his patients, 7 Dec 1890; Whitechapel murder, 14 Feb 1891; fire at Spital Barn and other buildings, [Lewes] St Anne, 3 Mar 1891; death of [Rev Peter] de Putron earlier that week, 21 Apr 1891; induction of the Rev R M Rosseter [at Rodmell], 31 Jul 1891
Sep 1891 - Jul 1896
Sam Elphick bankrupt, and Mr Morris's old dining room in the Cliffe [Lewes] turned into a butcher's, 9 Oct 1891; meeting of Guardians at Newhaven to censure F Noakes for neglect of duty, and his attempt to drown himself, 15 Jan 1892; consecration of an addition to the churchyard, 18 Mar 1892; murder of a woman on Heighton hills, and discovery of her body by Mr Webber, 7 Apr 1893; camp of about sixty boys in Mr Stacey's barn in Churchfield, 27 Jul 1893; death of her mother [Caroline Verrall], 11 Aug 1893; Mr Bridgeman put up a brass to the Rev [Peter] de Putron, 31 Oct 1893; measuring at Itford Crossing for two new cottages, and reference to the signal box having been in use for a few weeks, 30 Dec 1893; opening of the new farmers' college at Uckfield [later Plumpton Agricultural College], 7 Feb 1895; loss of the Seaford, a Newhaven boat, after a collision, 20 Aug 1895; [aunt] Annie Verrall has heard that Telscombe is sold, and they have been given notice to quit, 25 Aug 1895; death of Mary Fowler, a close friend, 30 Sep 1895; departure of aunt and uncle from Telscombe, and need for the Wilshire family to leave Tarring because the farm is let in pieces, 5 Oct 1895; death of Mrs G Glazebrook, 29 Nov 1895; death of Uncle George Verrall on 9 Dec 1895, 10 Dec 1895; visit to Brighton to see the Duke and Duchess of York, 9 Apr 1896; death of Isaac Morris, MD, 3 Wallands Crescent, Lewes, aged 56, the sixth son of the late Ebenezer Morris of the Cliffe, Lewes, 5 Jun 1896
Papers relating to Jacob Verrall
Related information
: For records concerning his estate, and property held on annual tenancies, see AMS6572/5/3-4
Photograph of Jacob Verrall
22 Apr 1873
Edward Reeves, 159 High Street, Lewes
Genealogical notes
Biographical notes and pedigrees of the Verrall families of Court House Farm
[1687] - 2000
Parish of St John sub Castro, Lewes, and the descendants of William Verrall of Telscombe, compiled by Michael S Verrall
Pedigree of the descendants of William Verrall of Telscombe
Compiled by the donor (a grand-daughter of Lydia Brand), [1807]-2000; photocopy marriage certificate of Edmund Brand, of Mayfield, farmer, widower, and Emily Carey Hook, spinster, at Waldron, [11 Oct 1847] - Jan 1975
Correspondence concerning permission to build a house at Warbleton
Source of acquisition
: Copies purchased 21 March 2001 (ACC 8302)
These three copies illustrate the means by which Thomas Blatcher of Warbleton, a shingler, attempted to obtain permission to erect a cottage between Greenslade and Collards Green in Warbleton. The land, roadside waste, was considered part of the Rape of Hastings, and the letters provide an instructive view of the mechanics of an application to the lord of the Rape, Thomas Pelham, and his officers
A fourth copy, relating to an application for a site in an un-named parish, perhaps near (but not in) Brede, is also included (AMS6573/4)
The documents are part of the Pelham archive at the British Library, and their BL references appear after each entry. One volume, BL Add MS 33058, consists entirely of petitions, 1581-1610 and undated, and a list of its contents appears as AMS6573/5
Edward Mabbe, minister of Warbleton
nd, [Dec 1610]
Archival history
BL Add MS 33058 f27
For Thomas Blatcher, to [Thomas Pelham]; TB, having obtained a grant from TP, has been forbidden to set the house in the appointed place by TP's steward Mr [Thomas] Greensted; the poor man and his family 'is fain to take up his lodging in an old rotten barn which will not keep out wind or rain'; EM and parishioners wish 'some corner' to be appointed, 'for which God no doubt will bountifully reward you'
Elizabeth Pelham to her cousin [Thomas Pelham]
nd, [Dec 1610]
Archival history
BL Add MS 33084 f34
Has been entreated to write by Thomas Blachar, a shingler, to whom TP once granted permission to set up a little house between [Rushlake deleted] [Greenslade] and Collards Green [in Warbleton]; he has got a frame ready to set up but has been hindered by TP's man, 'fearing that he will be an enemy to the prospering of your woods'; TB promises not to be, and EP urges TP to grant permission and be 'rewarded of the lord hereafter'
Thomas Stolyon and Edmund Ward, Warbleton to [Thomas Pelham]
Archival history
BL Add MS 33058 f54
Poor [Thomas] Blacher told them that TP had granted permission, and wished TS and EW to appoint a place; they now learn from Thomas Grinsted that is not the case; they chose the place where it now stands as there was room beside the way, because the frame lay near it and because Blatcher promised that it would be pulled down if he meddled in TP's coppice; 'the case of the poor man and his wife and [4] children doth pity us [all], as they have been in an end of a barn this month and more'; yesterday Tyherst threatened to cut down the frame and it was feared that the woman would go out of her wits, 'because she hath been once so before'; asks for permission to let it stand, otherwise the parish must take it down and carry it somewhere else for TB, as he is not able to do it himself; 24 Dec 1610
Richard Devenishe to Mr Playford [recte Playfair]
nd, c1600
Archival history
BL Add MS 33058 f33
Related information
: Samuel Playfair succeeded his father William Playfair of Hawkhurst as steward of the Rape of Hastings on the latter's death in 1594; Samuel was of Winchelsea at his death in 1621; see SAS/RA 75, PCC 11 Drake and WA 28 102
Administrative history
Administration of the estate of Richard Devenish of Brede was granted on 24 April 1592 (WB 2 f171), but since Brede itself was an exempt liberty within Hastings Rape, and as Thomas Pelham had purchased the rape from the Earl of Huntington only in June 1591, it seems improbable that this letter is associated with the parish. No better identification for either Devenish or Gorham has been established
Requests him to show friendship to the bearer, William Gorrom, who has bought a house ready framed and needs a licence to set it up
Typescript list of the contents of BL Add MS 33058
Listing petitions for grants of waste in the rapes of Hastings and Pevensey, 1581-1610 and undated
Copies of portions of the Langdon cartulary at the Public Record Office relating to the foundation of a chantry in Winchelsea St Thomas by Stephen Alard
Source of acquisition
: Copies purchased 3 July 2000 (ACC 8154)
The cartulary of the abbey of Premonstratensian canons at Langdon in Kent is in the Public Record Office, E164/29
These copies relate to the legal instruments necessary for the foundation of a chantry in the church of Winchelsea St Thomas by Stephen Alard of Winchelsea in memory of himself, his parents and his wife. Alard vested property in Langdon for the maintenance of the chantry, of which the abbey was made the effective guardian. The technique employed, the compromise of a case in the court of common pleas by means of a final concord, was unusual enough to catch the eye of the law-reporter: see Selden Society 33 (1916) 128-30
A similar means of foundation was to be used by the Alard family in 1319 when Henry Alard's executors made an agreement with Battle Abbey to found a chantry in his memory
For a discussion of the foundations, and the effigies in Winchelsea St Thomas which the authors associate with them, see Blair, Goodall and Lankester, 'The Winchelsea Tombs Reconsidered' in Church Monuments 20 (2000) 5-30
Copies of portions of the Langdon cartulary at the Public Record Office relating to the foundation of a chantry in Winchelsea St Thomas by Stephen Alard
Folio 171-171v
Covenant to found a chantry for £200, 23 May 1312
The abbot of Langdon and Stephen Alard of Winchelsea
The abbot should go to the king's court in the octave of Trinity at the suit of SA by a writ of customs and services which SA should sue against him and there acknowledge by fine that he holds the manors of Enebroke and Lydden (Ledenne) of SA by fealty and by the service of finding two chaplains to celebrate in the chapel of SA and his successors built in the honour of the blessed Mary in the church of Winchelsea St Thomas, for the soul of SA, his father Nicholas and his wife Alice, SA's mother Isabel and their ancestors and heirs; finding the chaplains bread, wine and candles, vestments, ornaments and other necessaries for the chantry
Eight days after the fine has been levied SA to find at the first entry of the chaplains two chalices, two vestments and a breviary, and the abbot a missal, bread, wine and candles; the abbot and convent to find all the said ornaments in future
The abbot and convent to receive £10 a year in SA's name to be paid to the chaplains for their food and clothing; they will in future charge their said manors to the distraint of SA whenever the payment is in arrears
The chaplains found by the abbot and convent to be honest, chaste and of honest conversation, sufficient in letters and other things which fit the estate of a priest; they should celebrate daily mass, matins with due hours and vespers, placebo and dirige for the said souls in the said chapel
In the case of their misbehaviour, SA or his heirs to denounce them to the abbot and convent, who are to replace them within a quarter
Abbot and convent charge their manors to the distraint of the chaplains in SA's name
SA will give the abbot and convent in pure alms a messuage in Winchelsea St Thomas, formerly Robert Jolivet, as a dwelling for the chaplains, who are to bear its charges
W: William de Swantone, William Loteriht, John Barrock, Edmund de Passelegh, William Colebrand, Thomas Estwelle, Michael de Euebroke, John Scappe, Thomas Elys, Stephen de la Banot, William de Brokhelle, John de Wodhelle, Philip Clericus; at Langdon
Folio 171v-172
Undertaking by William, abbot of Langdon, charging their manors of Eynebroke and Lydden (Lyedenne) with the payment of the rent of £10 specified above, and to find the chaplains and to maintain them as above; at Langdon, 15 June 1312
Folio 172
Final concord specified above; octave of Trinity (29 May) 1312
Folio 172v
Grant in pure alms; nd, [1312]
Stephen Alard of Winchelsea to the abbot and convent of Langdon
Messuage in Winchelsea St Thomas which his father Nicholas Alard purchased in fee from Robert Jolyvet, with all the houses and other buildings upon it
As a dwelling for two chaplains celebrating for the souls of SA, his father Nicholas Alard, Nicholas's wife Alice, SA's mother Isabel and all his ancestors and heirs
W: William Seman, William Bate, Vincent Herberd, Henry Pawlyn, John Reynald, Robert Alard, Benedict Alard, John Colkyn, John de Earde, William de Bernefelde, William de Swantone, William Lotteriht
Copies of Land Revenue Record Office maps at the Public Record Office
Source of acquisition
: Copies purchased 14 April 2000 (ACC 8118)
This list brings together copies of maps relating to East Sussex to be found in the archive of the Land Revenue Office, Public Record Office class LRRO 1
The class consists of 5143 maps and plans formerly in the custody of the Auditors of the Land Revenue (1554-1832), the Keeper of the Office of Land Revenues and Enrolments (1832-1961), the Commissioners of Crown Lands (1925-1956) and the Crown Estate Commissioners (1956-date)
Most of the maps in LRRO 1/1-1356 which date from 1860 or earlier are described more fully in the published catalogue, Maps and Plans in the Public Record Office 1. British Isles c1410-1860 (London, HMSO, 1967). A copy of the Sussex portion, which however contains details only of AMS6575/1 is available in the searchroom
The description of each map is followed by the PRO departmental and map references
A copy of the portion of the PRO list of LRRO 1 covering 30 maps of the crown land at Hastings, 1821-1931, is listed as AMS6575/5
Barcombe [no ref.]
'A Map of A Farm of Sir Charles Goring's of Highdowne in the County of Sussex lying in the Parish of Barcombe in the said County called Nowl-land alias Know-land and part of the [manor of] Balneth'
Archival history
Related information
: For James Day, see S Bendall Dictionary of Land Surveyors 2 (British Library, 1997) D118
Estate-map showing 354a 1r 3p of land between Markstakes Common and Balneath Manor House on the west and the road from Barcombe Cross to Spithurst on the east; includes Tomset's Farm (26a 3r 2p), Balneath Land (143a 0r 7p) and Knowlands Farm (179a 1r 34p), all occupied by John Carpenter; shows river-crossings at Springle Bridge, Holmans Bridge, Napps Bridge and Barcombe Clappers; one field marked as held of Allington Manor
Original ink and colour on parchment, 51" x 30"; shows names and houses of neighbouring owners, roads and paths with their directions; fields numbered according to two tables of contents listing number, name and acreage (distinguishing plain, rough and total); third table distinguishes arable, plain and pasture from meadow, both upland and flowed by the river; fields 'where bushes are run through negligence' indicated by an asterisk; compass star; scale of just under 3 chains to an inch; title on a trompe-l'oiel panel, apparently pinned to the map
Cartographer: James Day, July 1737
Each table subscribed with the signature of C[harles] F[orster] Goring, the whole map annotated Sold to Sir Charles F Goring Baronet December 1825 vide Sale Book 11 p 357
The land shown by this map was among the East Sussex estates of the Goring family of Wiston offered for sale in 1886: West Sussex Record Office Wiston MS 5798; it was offered for sale again in 1943: AMS5824/3. The purchase referred to on the map was of a fee-farm rent, parts of the estate having belonged to Lewes Priory
Beckley and Peasmarsh [no ref.]
'Plan of an estate belonging to the Crown called The Chantry Lands & Mote Farm Situate in the Parishes of Beckley & Peasmarsh and in the County of Sussex'
Archival history
Related information
: For a very detailed survey of this land by the parliamentary commissioners, July 1650, see PRO E 317/Sussex/21, published in Sussex Archaeological Collections 23 (1871) 277-280
For drainage maps of 1687 and 1724 showing the site of the chantry in Peasmarsh (that of 1687 showing a roofless building), see ACC 2806/1/9/5 and ACC 496/7
The estate was sold by the crown in order to fund the purchase of the High Meadow Estate in Gloucestershire from Henry Hall Gage, Lord Gage, and was authorised by an act of parliament 57 Geo III cap xcvii; for a copy of the act, printed particulars (including an engraved version of this map) and the conveyance of Lot 1, the house and land near Beckley Church, to George Rugg of Woodgate House in Beckley, esq, see GBN 5/4
For the Drivers, see S Bendall Dictionary of Land Surveyors 2 (British Library, 1997) D316, 324 and 319
Estate-map showing 21 fields in six blocks of land near Beckley Church and elsewhere amounting to 88a 3r 34p; shows the Old Rose and Crown, Bowling Alley Field and Brick-kiln Field in Beckley and the site of the chantry chapel as an earthwork in Seven Acre Marsh, Peasmarsh
Original ink and colour on parchment, 25" x 37½"; shows names of neighbouring owners, roads and paths with their directions; fields numbered according to a table of contents listing number, name, acreage (distinguishing arable, meadow and pasture and wood) and total; compass pointer; title in a cartouche formed by a trees in a highland scene, surmounted by a crown
Taken by order of John Fordyce, esq, surveyor general of the land revenue, by A[braham Purshouse Driver], W[illiam Driver] and E[dward] Driver, 1808
Each field annotated in pencil sold; the whole map annotated Sold to Jeremiah Curteis Esq, Thomas Pix, Esq and George Rugg, Esq, Dec 1817 and Jan 1818; vide Sale Book 7 pages 8, 13, 19
The chantry is not included in the documents edited as 'Sussex Chantry Records' (Sussex Record Society 36), possibly as a result of confusion with that in the nearby chapel of Mote Place in Iden
Hastings [no ref.]
'Plan of Derelict Land at Hastings 1821'
Archival history
Related information
: For the Drivers, see S Bendall Dictionary of Land Surveyors 2 (British Library, 1997) D316 and 319
Plan of the land between Cuckoo Hill and The priory on the west and the south end of All Saints Street on the east, that shown by 4 below and to the south of Castle Street showing buildings and other structures in detail; shows Rock Fair Green, The Priory Houses, The Castle Hotel (Thomas Farncombe), The New Parade, The Parade and The Battery; George Street, West Street, Hill Street, High Street, East Bourne Street, All Saints Street, Court House Street, Three Post Lane, Winders Lane, John Street, South Parade, Market House and the Fish Market shown in outline, though apparently with great accuracy; Pelham Terrace and Pelham Place sketched in in pencil
Original ink and wash on paper, 65½" x 20½"; buildings numbered according to table of reference listing type of building and construction material, occupier, claimant, rent and observations; compass star; scale of 1 chain to one inch; area of a pier, piles and rocks sketched in, with 'supposed line of sea wall per Messrs Walkers plan'
A[braham Purshouse] Driver and E[dward] Driver, 1821
Annotated: 1824 nearly all the vacant ground shown on this plan except the piece number 71 has been covered with buildings of various descriptions and by all persons indiscriminately since the plan was made, and without any opposition from anyone; E[dward] D[river] 31 Jan 1825
Hastings [no ref.]
'Plan of Crown Land at Hastings'
Archival history
Related information
: For a complete list of plans of crown land in Hastings, see AMS6575/5
For Edward Driver, see S Bendall Dictionary of Land Surveyors 2 (British Library, 1997) D319
Detailed plan of land between Cuckoo Hill and The Priory on the west and Priory Water and Bridge on the east (the western part of that shown by AMS6575/3) showing the present (2001) area of Claremont, Cambridge Road, Trinity Street, Robertson Street, Carlisle Parade and Harold Place, with 195 numbered buildings and other structures; shows a rope-walk and former rope-walk; indicates properties tenanted by Thomas Breeds, Thomas James Breeds and Boykett Breeds (including a coke-oven, coal-warehouse and kilns, the latter annotated sold)
Original ink and wash on paper, 26½" x 18"; buildings numbered according to tables of reference listing type of building and construction material; compass pointer; no scale [1 chain to one inch]
Annotated this is the plan referred to in the agreement signed by the tenants
Signed: Edward Driver, Richmond Terrace, 14 Apr 1829
List of 30 plans of crown land in Hastings in PRO LRRO 1
Copy of petition concerning marshland in Iden and Stone in Kent at the Public Record Office
Archival history
This petition, possibly to the barons of the exchequer, was originally among the class Exchequer, Accounts Various at the Public Record Office, where it formed part of a bundle of fragments of accounts and subsidiary documents, temp H3 to H8, with the reference E101/547/7. That bundle was subsequently withdrawn from E101 and placed in a class of extracts, where its current reference is EXT 6/144/7
Source of acquisition
: Copies purchased 9 April 2001 (ACC 8316)
Related information
: For a defeasance of a statute merchant by Stephen de Pesenden to William de Leghe of Sussex and John Cheseman of Canterbury, 7R2 (1383-84), see PRO E210/2459; for a bond for a repayment of a loan between the same parties, 8R2 (1384-85), see PRO E212/122; for a general release of actions by Cheseman to Stephen Pesenden of Kent, 20 April 1385, acknowledged before the abbot of Boxley in Kent on 15 June 1389, see Calendar of Close Rolls, 1385-89 684
Administrative history
Although the document is undated, other material in the PRO points to a date of the mid-1380s, which would be quite consistent with its hand
The petition is anonymous, but its content suggests that it was written on behalf of Stephen de Pesenden
Petition, in French, to 'my most honoured lords' [?the barons of the exchequer]; William de Lyghe should have completed a wall against the sea for the enclosure and salvation of the marshland belonging to Stephen de Pesenden in Iden in Sussex and Stone in Kent, for sums of money which he received from the men of the community of the country and from Stephen; William affirmed that the work could not be completed without a further £63 6s 8d, so Stephen entered into two bonds for twice the sum to William and to John Cheseman, on condition that the sum be levied and paid by the men of the community with as much haste as possible by session of the king's justices assigned to oversee in the country by the custom and law of the marsh called mersshelawe, to which William agreed, as appears by indenture under his seal and by another which he should have sealed, as appears by evidence accepted in the chancery, and as Stephen required that William and John should be examined on oath
The sum was neither levied nor paid before the days of payment in the bonds, by William's fault, as is known throughout the whole country. As the enclosure was not made Stephen has lost some of the land, to the value of £40 a year and more, as is known, and the whole of the money paid to William, to the sum of £130, over and above the sum secured by the bonds
Papers of the De La Warr Cycling Boulevard, Bexhill, and Bexhill Cycling Club
Source of acquisition
: The records were purchased 3 Nov 2000 (ACC 8235)
Administrative history
These records were probably accumulated by Percy L Young, who was a Vice-President of Bexhill Cycling Club, and ran the De La Warr Cycling Boulevard
The De La Warr Cycling Boulevard was developed by the eighth earl De La Warr, Gilbert George Reginald Sackville (1869-1915), who was responsible for creating a number of attractions and recreational facilities as part of the attempt to establish Bexhill as an important seaside resort. In 1896 the cycle track was constructed along the East Parade, which had been built by John Webb for the De La Warr estate in 1883. In 1896 the Town Council refused terms to take over East and De La Warr Parades; these were shut off by ornamental gates until 1913, when the Corporation became responsible for them. In 1902 the first motor races in England took place along this stretch
Cycling was a popular Victorian activity. Earl De La Warr held summer cycling meetings on cricket ground at Bexhill Manor House from 1896. In 1897 prizes were presented by the Grand Duke Michael of Russia, an uncle of the Czar, who was godfather to Lord and Lady De La Warr's youngest daughter, Avice Ela Muriel
In later years cycling meetings were organised in Egerton Park by the Bexhill Cycling Club. The club was established in 1889. After the First World War the local cycling club was known as the Bexhill Wheelers
De La Warr Cycling Boulevard: papers and photographs
Printed card of admission charges and cycling hire
Card for a course of eight cycling lessons
nd, c1896
Two photographs
nd, c1896-1897
Showing employees of the De La Warr Cycling Boulevard posing outside the cycling chalet on bicycles, wearing uniforms with badges with DCB initials [De La Warr Cycling Boulevard]
Photograph of the interior of a concert hall, ? the Kursaal, Bexhill
nd, c1896
The Kursaal was a pier-like pavilion that jutted seawards from the De La Warr Parade, and was developed by the De La Warr estate. It opened in 1896, and was then the centre for musical and dramatic entertainment in the town. It was renamed the Pavilion during the First World War because of anti-German feeling, and was eventually purchased by the Corporation and demolished in 1936
Invitation card to the dinner for representatives of Humber & Co (Extension) Ltd, of Beeston [? Nottingham], Wolverhampton [Staffordshire] and Coventry [Warwickshire]
At the Trocadero Restaurant, Piccadilly Circus [London] 24 Nov 1896. Humber & Co was a bicycle manufacturer
Letter to [Percy] Young
9 Jun 1897
From Walter Kirk, the Manor House, Bexhill, writing on behalf of Lord De La Warr to protest about incivility from Young's employees at the cycle track
Totals of monthly receipts from services provided [at the De La Warr Cycling Boulevard]
Jan - Sep [?1897]
Printed particulars of bicycles in De La Warr Cycling Boulevard close of season sale
3 Nov 1897
To be sold by Woodhams and Son, Havelock Road, Hastings, and Stonehouse Farm, Hollington, on the instructions of Percy L Young; annotated with the prices raised
Manuscript list of the cycles for sale
nd [1897]
As in AMS6577/1/8
Accounts produced by T H Woodhams & Son, Hastings, to P[ercy] L Young
[Sep 1897] - Nov 1897
For the proceeds and expenses of the cycle sale organised as in AMS6577/1/8
Visiting card of Percy L Young, De La Warr Cycling Boulevard
nd, c1896
Conditions of access
: Missing Apr 2001
Bexhill Cycling Club: rules
nd, c1889
Includes the names of officers
Account for farming on the Searles Estate at Fletching
31 March - 5 April 1788
Source of acquisition
: Document purchased 24 April 2001 (ACC 8321)
Related information
: For informative (but regrettably unreferenced) accounts of Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, colonel of the 50th Regiment of Foot, and his wife Jane, née Weller, see Hindsight (Uckfield, 2001) 7 10-19
This document, purchased from a dealer, is a stray from ESRO SRL/21/6, a bundle of similar accounts covering the period 1782-1787
The documents consist of letters sent to Thomas Spencer Wilson, bt (1726-1798), most frequently at Charlton House in Kent, by his bailiff Henry Cook. They consist of detailed profit and loss accounts for the home farms of the Searles estate, a day-book of work and a letter with comments on the week, written in a strong vernacular in a well-formed hand
Wilson retained the letters, which he annotated extensively, in order to demonstrate how much more profit could be made by keeping farms in hand than by letting them to tenants
Although the land managed by Cook is not specified in this letter, it is clear from the remainder of the bundle that it consisted of Woodcocks, Clapwater and Laurences Farms, Hesbridge Mead, the three Paste Fields, three South Fields and Hatches Field in Fletching
At some point in about 1900 the letters were numbered in red ink in a series extending as far as 26, the number carried by this document. It has also been annotated in pencil, at a much later date, 245 7/6, suggesting that it had been separated from the bundle and sold as an example of postal history. It is not, however, the only letter in the bundle to have been sent through the post, nor the only missing item: letters 9, 13, 15-17 and 19 are also not present
Letter from Henry Cook, [Fletching], to Thomas Spencer Wilson, bt, Charlton House, Kent
6 Apr 1788
Incorporates a farming account for 31 Mar - 5 Apr 1788 (including ploughing, drainage, purchase of chickens, sacks and yarn and a poor-rate, sale of wheat at East Grinstead and wood), an account of fields sowed naming seed, acreage and field-name, a table of seed and fields sowed and a letter relating the week's work
Cook will take his book of weekly accounts to [Thomas] Wakeham [attorney at East Grinstead]; Grover did not come to work; the willows are all planted; the drains are drawn in the meadows at Laurences; will let TSW know when the granary is put to rights; Mr Franks to come for his bars and post for the house at Coldharbour; a great deal of snow fell at Woodcocks; 'will keep my spirits up as well as I can'
'Put in [the post] at Maresfield Sunday evening 5 o'clock April the 6th 1788'; two post-stamps and one hand-mark
Annotated in red ink, c1900: 26
Map of Heathfield Vicarage Glebe by Thomas Weller
Source of acquisition
: Photocopy purchased 10 May 2001 (ACC 8344)
Copies information
: The original of this map remains in private hands
Related information
: For Thomas Weller (1737-1807), who kept a school at Heathfield until 1782, see John Caffyn (ed), 'Sussex Schools in the 18th Century' (Sussex Record Society 81 (1998) 129-30, 344) and Sarah Bendall (ed), Dictionary of Land Surveyors and Local Map-makers 2 (1997) W22
For Weller's map of the Heathfield estate, 1785, see AMS6080/1
For Rowland Gibson and other vicars of Heathfield, see Perceval Lucas, Heathfield Memorials (1910), 21-33
The map, then in better condition, was used as an illustration to his account of the vicarage by Perceval Lucas in Heathfield Memorials (1910)
'A Map and Survey of the Vicarage Glebe of Heathfield in Sussex belonging to the Revd Mr GIBSON With the Front View of the House, & North-West View of the Church by T Weller 1784'
Estate-map showing house, buildings and 22½ acres of land; original ink and colour on paper, 10½" x 9½"
Shows fields (distinguishing land-use), buildings, roads and their directions, names of neighbouring owners; insets showing the house and Heathfield Church
Compass-pointer in the form of a bow and arrow; scale of [four chains to an inch]; fields numbered to tally with a table of contents giving field-names, plain and total acreages; title, insets and table within cartouches of ribbon, boughs and floral swags
Magnified close-up of plan of house, garden and outbuildings
Magnified close-up of view of house
Magnified close-up of view of church
Records of the East Sussex Ploughing Match Society
Separately Catalogued for A2A
Records of the Danehill and Horsted Keynes Nursing Association
Source of acquisition
: Document deposited 4 June 2001 (ACC 8361). This annual report was donated by the retired district nurse
Related information
: For the archive of the East Sussex Nursing Association, see ACC 8354; for the papers of Harry White as treasurer of Hailsham Nursing Association, 1920-1948, see AMS6160; for the minutes of the Groombridge and Ashurst Nursing Association, 1915-1939, see AMS6426
For annual returns submitted to the Charity Commission by nursing associations, see CHC 9/13 (Brighton, Hove and Preston, 1925-193, 1946), 25/2 (Forest Row, 1913-14, 1917-18, 1928-29), 31/1 (Hartfield (with Withyham from 1937), 1925-26 - 1952-53), 32/2 (Hastings and St Leonards, 1925-26 - 1938-39, 1940-41, 1942-43), 42/2 (Lewes, 1925-26 - 1942-43) and 64/1 (Rottingdean, 1947)
Administrative history
On the evidence of the annual report, the association was founded 1901; it is the only known survival from the archive of this nursing association
Sixty-third annual report and balance-sheet of the Danehill and Horsted Keynes Nursing Association, 1964-1965
Includes the names of the board of management, the annual reports of the secretary (Marion Richards), sister [Margaret Munro] Witter and financial secretary (M E Gibbins), an income and expenditure account and balance-sheet, audited 23 Apr 1965
Diary of William Harison of Folkington, 1827-1828; transcript of radio broadcast from Jevington, c1950
Source of acquisition
: Photocopies given 20 June 2000 (ACC 8147); Both these copies were given by the owner of Folkington Place
The original of the Harison diary (AMS6582/1) was brought to Folkington Place in the 1970s by a lady from Brighton whose name was not recorded at the time. She allowed it to be copied, but six openings were missed
Inside the front cover, in a hand of c1900, is written: 'journal of William Harison of Folkington my great uncle; E Cockburn, 29 Grafton Road, Acton W'. It is possible that E Cockburn was Edith, the daughter of William Thomas Harison of Sutton in Seaford, William Harison's nephew. But the relationship has not been proved, and there are many other lines of descent. For a pedigree of the Harison family, 1854, see Mark Anthony Lower, Memorials of... ... Seaford (1855) 60-61
The transcript of 'Country Magazine' (AMS6582/3) is not dated, but if 'Josh' Bradford, who says that his age is 55, is the Jocelyn Bradford married at Wilmington on 25 January 1919 at the age of 23 (PAR 510/1/3/2 entry 129), then the programme would have been broadcast in 1950
Diary of William Harison of Folkington Place (c1769-1838)
Jan 1827 - Jun 1828
Social events, agriculture, gardening, weather
Typescript transcript of AMS6582/1
nd, c1980
Transcript of BBC Home Service radio programme 'Country Magazine'
Broadcast from the garden of the Eight Bells, Jevington, c1950; nd, c1980
Interviewees include David Bradley (stud-groom, Jevington Place), John Dumbrill (shepherd or farmer), Mrs Dumbrill (farmer's wife), 'Josh' Bradford (farm worker), Charles Paice (tax-driver from Wilmington), Les Barker (lime-burner at Filching), Derek Pyle (farm-worker from Friston), Frank Collinson (music), with songs by Robert Irwin and James Copper
Records of the East Sussex County Nursing Association
Separately Catalogued for A2A
Album compiled by Cecil Fawssett, 83 High Street, Lewes, concerning Lewes Fire Brigade
Source of acquisition
: Deposited 16 Mar 2001 (ACC 8301)
Related information
: For minutes of the Fire Brigade Committee of Lewes Council, 1904-1940, see BLE A3/45-46. These have been used to supply dates for some of the items in AMS6584/1
For local authority records relating to the fire service see C/F and R/F; for a history of fire-fighting in East Sussex, see R/F 15/1; for papers relating to Wadhurst Fire Brigade [1904]-1980, see AMS6439/7; for minutes and papers of Kingston Fire Committee, 1941, see AMS6283/22; for papers and photographs of the Uckfield Fire Brigade, the Bexhill Fire Brigade, and the National Fire Service in East Sussex, c1905-c1944, see AMS6443
Administrative history
Cecil was the son of Frank and Margaret Louisa Fawssett, and was baptised at St Michael's Church, Lewes, on 16 April 1895; Frank was a physician, and the family lived at 83 High Street, Lewes. There were at least two other children: Winifred Margaret, baptised 14 February 1892, and Evelyn Barbara, baptised 1 March 1893
It seems highly likely that Cecil's interest in the brigade was aroused in 1904, when his home was affected by a fire in the neighbouring property, owned by F W Dusart (AMS6584/1 pp 6-9). The minutes of the Fire Brigade Committee of Lewes Council for 23 May 1911 (BLE A3/45) record that he was made an honorary member of the brigade; in 16 June 1914 he was made an honorary Lieutenant in recognition of his services. He came fifth overall in the Lewes brigade competition on 16 September 1911 (AMS6584/1 p20). It has not proved possible to trace his later career, but he does not seem to have become a full-time member of the fire service. He died 4 August 1961
Local criticism of the handling of the fire at Dusart's premises led to the establishment of a Fire Brigade Committee and greater investment in the fire service by Lewes Borough Council. At the time the fire engines were lodged in adapted premises at the back of the market hall in Market Street, and there was also an engine lodged in Cliffe Square. Existing resources proved inadequate to deal with the fire, and it was only brought under control when the Brighton Borough Police Fire Brigade and the Brighton Volunteer Fire Brigade gave assistance
A new horse drawn steam fire engine was purchased shortly afterwards, and a new fire station and two cottages were built at Corporation Wharf, facing North Street; these were completed in 1907. There was a paid fire service consisting of a Chief Officer, Superintendent, Second Officer, Assistant Engineer and twelve firemen. In December 1909 it was decided that the old fire station in Market Lane would be let as a motor garage, although a hose cart was left there
Containing photographs, newscuttings and accounts of fires attended by Lewes Fire Brigade; compiled by Cecil Fawssett, 83 High Street, Lewes; 1904-[1913]
p1 Inscription noting that the book was compiled by Cecil Fawssett, 83 High Street, Lewes, aged 17 in 1912, who died 4 Aug 1961
pp4-5 Ground floor plan of basement and club rooms, Lewes Fire Station (station 1)
pp6-9 Manuscript account of the fire at Dusart's premises, High Street, [Lewes]; photographs showing the blaze; bystanders being kept back by police while the fire is tended; the rear of Mr Holman's and Dr Fawssett's houses, the latter with windows marked our room and Winifred's room; bystanders in front of the burnt-out shell of Dusart's; 4 Oct 1904
Frank Harold Dusart of 84 and 85 High Street (sometimes described as 85 and 85a) was a hairdresser and perfumer, also a tobacconist and dealer of fancy goods. The fire was so intense that it cracked the plate glass window of Reeves' photographic shop opposite, and spread to the houses of Frederick Holman, solicitor, 86 High Street, and Dr Frank Fawssett, 83 High Street. It was necessary to summon the Brighton Volunteer Brigade in order to get it under control. The fire caused £5,600 worth of damage. The manuscript account was probably written by CF, who marked the location of his and his sister Winifred's rooms on one of the photographs
pp12-13 The ruins of Malling Mill, Lewes, nd [Sep 1908]
The brigade was summoned by an electrical alarm system, which was the first time it was used. There was only five such devices in the town
pp14-15 Smith's fire [170 High Street, Lewes, owned by Ernest P Smith; adjoining premises 169, and 171, 172 and 173 High Street were also damaged]; 19 Oct 1907
p16 Photographs of a fire brigade competition; business card of Owen Dumbrell, Chief Officer of Hove Fire Brigade, 98 Goldstone Road, Hove; 1910
pp17-18 Newscuttings concerning the fire at C Thompson, draper and outfitter, 19 and 20 High Street, Cliffe, Lewes [the premises were occupied by the executors of C Thompson, and owned by Messrs J & W M Porter, Ringmer]; photographs of the shop interior and exterior; sample of cloth recovered; [28 Feb] 1911
p19 Newscuttings and notes concerning a fire at the home of Miss Stephens, 57 and 58 High Street [Lewes], 5 Aug 1911; fire in one of the bedrooms in the home of Alderman J H Every, The Croft, St Anne's [Lewes], 15 Aug 1911; fire at Rosenlaui, Park Road [Lewes], the home of E A Wheatley, 17 Aug 1911; stack fire at Northease [Rodmell], owned by James Stacey, 22 Aug 1911
p20 Photographs of South Coast District Competition, Hurstpierpoint, 23 Aug [1911]; list of winners of Lewes Fire Brigade competitions, which lists Fawssett as an honorary fireman, 16 Sep 1911
p21 Photographs and note concerning fire at Martins's Garage, 19 Sep 1911; newscutting concerning false alarm of fire at the Phoenix Ironworks, 10 Oct 1911
p22 Newscutting concerning the fire at the premises of H W Moore, draper and outfitter [19 Cliffe High Street, owned by Messrs Porter], that spread to those of Messrs Elphick and Son Ltd, [18] Cliffe High Street [Lewes], nd [19 Nov 1911]; photograph of fire crews at the South East Coast District Competition, Hurstpierpoint, [23 Aug] 1911; postcard for the International Competition at Turin, with illustration of a fainting woman being carried by a fireman, Aug 1911
pp23-26 Photographs and newscuttings concerning the fire at Messrs George Norman and Company's Cooksbridge Brewery, Cooksbridge [Hamsey]; printed brewery label; telegram summoning help from the Lewes Fire Brigade; 7 Aug 1912
p27 Photographs of the old Lewes manual fire appliance, built 1785, nd, c1910; Lewes Fire Station [North Street], with horse-drawn fire-engine, nd, c1907
In March 1910 the Lewes Fire Brigade Committee agreed that the Sussex Archaeological Society should look after the old fire engine. The committee minutes of 25 April 1916 record concern at the condition of the engine, then housed at the castle, Lewes, and it was decided to resume possession of the engine and house it in the entrance of the Old Town Hall. In 1921 it was moved to the fire station. It is now (2001) housed in Anne of Cleves' House
pp28-30 Cutting and photographs of the Brighton Fire Brigade Competition, Preston Park, nd, c1912; cuttings and photographs concerning a fire in a store used by Messrs Elphick & Son Ltd, corn and seed merchants, in [Kent's Yard, which was owned by G P Kent], Soap Factory Lane, Malling Street, Lewes, nd [9 Sep 1912]
p31-33 Cuttings and photographs of the fire at The Manse, Grange Road [Lewes], the residence of the Rev Granville Ramage [property of the Presbyterian Church]; nd, [12 Sep 1912]
p33 Cutting concerning a fire at 23 Lancaster Street, Lewes [fire occurred on 16 Sep], 21 Sep 1912
p34 List of winners of Lewes Fire Brigade competitions, 19 Oct 1912 (part of page is detached); cutting concerning a fire at Albion House, Lewes, occupied by Mr and Mrs Frank Loud [owned by Mrs Smythe], nd [17 Feb 1913]
p35 Cutting concerning the national escape challenge shield competition at Crystal Palace [London], where the Lewes Fire Brigade and the Portslade Gas Works Brigade were the local representatives, nd, c1912; cutting concerning fires at a stable, Western Road, St Anne's [owned by W R Hill, Ashford, and occupied by F Beck], and Old Mill Barn, Race Hill [Lewes; owned by the Marquess of Abergavenny, and occupied by R Brown], nd [27 Jun 1913]
Photocopies of correspondence between the naturalist John Ray (1627-1705) and Timothy Burrell of Ockenden in Cuckfield (1643-1717); 1690-1707
Source of acquisition
: Photocopies donated 17 Jul 2001 (ACC 8390)
Copies information
: The originals of the photocopies listed are held by Trinity College Cambridge (ref R.4.42). They are in a volume of autographs, entitled 'Letters from mathematicians etc 1690-1733', which was purchased by the College in June 1859 at the sale of the library (some 8,000 volumes, 40,000 letters and other manuscripts) of Dawson Turner (1775-1858), the botanist and antiquary (DNB)
Related information
: For further correspondence and accounts of Ray's life see The Dictionary of National Biography and Sussex Archaeological Collections 10 13-33; William Derham Philosophical Letters between Mr Ray and several of his... correspondents, 1718, and Life of John Ray, 1848; Robert T W Gunther Further Correspondence of John Ray, 1928, and Early Science at Cambridge, 1937; Sir Albert C Seward John Ray, 1937; C E Raven John Ray (1942)
Ray's correspondence and papers are to be found at the following locations: correspondence with Martin Lister, 1663-1689 and with Sir Tancred Robinson, 1683-1694 at the Natural History Museum; letters to the Royal Society, 1670-1697 at the Royal Society; letters to John Aubrey 1675-1695 and to Edward Lhuyd, 1689-1703 at the Bodleian Library; letters to Sir Hans Sloane, 1681-1705 and to James Petiver, 1701-1702 at the British Library; papers at the University of Nottingham
For letters from him to Peter Courthope (1639-1725), 1658-1674 see DAN 344-364; for letters from his friend, the naturalist Francis Willughby (1635-1672), to Peter Courthope, 1660s see DAN 2229-2234
Administrative history
Timothy Burrell, the son of Walter Burrell of Cuckfield (1600-1673) and Frances Hooper, was baptised at Cuckfield on 22 January 1643. He was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge on 22 June 1659, where he was awarded a BA in 1663, and he was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1661. Timothy was married three times: firstly on 14 January 1681 to Elizabeth (buried at Cuckfield on 27 October 1681), the daughter of Henry Goring of Highden in Washington, bt (1622-1702) and Frances Bisshop; secondly on 13 April 1683 to Mary (buried at Cuckfield on 8 July 1694), the daughter of Job Charlton of Lindfield, bt; and thirdly to Elizabeth (buried at Cuckfield on 8 February 1696), the daughter of [blank] Chilcot. Timothy died on 26 December 1717 (J Comber Sussex Genealogies: Ardingly Centre (1932))
The great naturalist John Ray, the son of Roger Ray, blacksmith, was born at Black Notley, Essex, probably on 29 November 1627. He was educated at Braintree grammar school before he entered Catherine Hall, Cambridge, in 1644, migrating in 1646 to Trinity College, where he was awarded a BA in 1647. Ray was a fellow and lecturer at Trinity from 1649 until he resigned in 1662. He travelled abroad with Francis Willughby between 1663 and 1666 before he returned to England to arrange Willughby's collection. In 1673 he married Margaret Oakeley, a member of his household, and in 1676, on the death of Willughby's mother, he moved to Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire and from there to Falkbourne Hall, Witham, Essex in 1677, and from there to Black Notley in 1679. He died there on 17 January 1705 (DNB)
John Ray was hosted in at least 1662, 1666 and 1667-68 by two former Cambridge pupils, Peter Courthope (1639-1725) of Danny in Hurstpierpoint and his cousin Timothy Burrell (1642-1717) of Ockenden in Cuckfield. Although Ray dedicated Synopis animalium quadrupedum et serpentini generis (1693) to them as 'the last survivors of his early associates', neither showed much interest in natural history once they had left Cambridge. However, Courthope did prompt Ray to compile A collection of English words, not generally used, with their significations and origin (1674) which, along with Dictionariolum trilingue (1675), was printed at the expense of Thomas Burrell, Timothy's brother (J H Farrant 'Sussex Depicted views and descriptions 1600-1800' Sussex Record Society 85 (2001) 20)
Letter from John Ray, Black Notley, [Essex] to Timothy Burrell, Cuckfield
22 Jul 1690
Informing him that Ray's 'very good friend & neighbour' Mr [Robert] Middleton is leaving to become the vicar of Cuckfield, and with an account of his life since they last met explaining that after he was ejected from the University he travelled for five years before settling with Francis Willughby at Middleton in Warwickshire and that after his death [in 1672] Ray married and now has four daughters (including one set of twins), congratulates him on his second marriage to the daughter of Sir Job Charlton
Copy letter from T B [Timothy Burrell] to John Ray
9 Jan 1695
Apologising for not having replied to his letter, with news of the death of his wife [Elizabeth] and discussing Ray's Synopsis animalium
Letter from John Ray, Black Notley, [Essex] to Timothy Burrell, Cuckfield
Informing that he 'received the sad news of the death of your honoured lady [Elizabeth] from Mr [Robert] Middleton when he was here last summer', discusses Burrell's objections to his Synopsis animalium, promises him a copy of his Synopsis methodica Avium & Piscium when it is published, and that he has 'for the whole winter [been] troubled with a diarrhoea which after I have stopt by the use of laudenham & other means for a while, returns again upon me. I have likewise sores upon one of my legs to which this long continuing cold is not propitious'; 13 Mar 1695
Endorsed 'recommend this to the care of Mr Peter Burrell, merchant in Bishopsgate Street, London'
Copy letter from T B [Timothy Burrell] to John Ray
Enquiring about his health and offering remedies; 29 Apr 1701
Endorsed sketch plan of tenements called ?Chilhilfeilds, Chickhill, Holy lands residue 13ac[res], part Holy land 8[acres] abutting on a street in [?Cuckfield]
Letter from John Ray, Black Notley, [Essex] to Timothy Burrell, Cuckfield
Apologising for not having answered his letter, thanking him for the suggested remedies, announcing his recently published treatise Persuasive to a holy life and asking him to subscribe 20s towards the supplement to his history of plants which is about to be published; 7 May 1701
Endorsed 'to be put into the green bag'
Letter from Peter Courthope to Timothy Burrell, Cuckfield
20 Feb 1707
Concerning the design for the monument to the late Mr [John] Ray and offering to contribute 40s, with a list of donors ([Henry Compton], Bishop of London, Dr Gibbons, Dr [Hans] Sloane, T[imothy] Burrell, Mr [?Robert] Middleton, P[eter] Courthope) and suggested sums
Records of the Lewes Cattle Market Company
Separately catalogued for A2A
Raven's Croft School, Eastbourne
Separately catalogued for A2A
Turnpike Trust and other documents from the offices of Raper & Fovargue of Battle, solicitors
Source of acquisition
: Documents purchased and given 12 September 2001 (ACC 8421, 8422)
The Battle solicitors Raper & Fovargue (formerly Tilden-Sampson, Barton and Bellingham, Bellingham & Ellman and Raper & Ellman) have been frequent depositors at East Sussex Record Office. They have also over the years allowed the Battle Historical Society access to their strongrooms, and several accessions from the Society are clearly from that source (see, for example, ACC 2449)
Deeds of 6 St Nicholas Lane, Lewes
Source of acquisition
: Documents given 20 July 2001 (ACC 8392)
This house, shown in red on the plan and its two neighbours to the south, were built in 1828 by Henry Alderton, a Newhaven bargemaster, on land owned by William Balcombe Langridge, the clerk of the peace; the site had formed part of a carpenter's yard owned by his father William Langridge. The three houses remained in single ownership until 1937, when numbers 8 and 10 were sold off
The carpenter's yard had been held as a freehold tenement of the manor of Southover by a quitrent of 1s 7½d. In 1647 Thomas Matthew of Lewes purchased from Richard Read of Lewes a garden adjoining the garden of Thomas Oliver, gent, belonging to the White Lion, and from Eleanor Feilder, widow, a garden formerly Harman's and late in the tenure of Robert Stapeley. The two gardens each formed separate freehold tenements of the manor of Southover, held by quitrents of 7d and 1s 0½ respectively (ACC 2327/3/1/1 p62). In 1745 and 1753 the gardens, treated as one tenement, were owned by Thomas Sergison, esq (ACC 2327/3/1/2). The probable extent of the tenement is shown by a red line on the plan
In March 1758 Langridge bought the whole property, consisting of a cottage and ¾a, with the exception of a piece of land with a well, which had already been sold to Henry Humphrey on behalf of the parish of Lewes All Saints; on 18 January 1758 Humphrey had vested the land, with a house in five tenements built on it and used as a workhouse, in feoffees for the use of the poor (HIL/6/28B/46). The area of the retained land is shown in green on the plan overleaf. In 1797 Langridge sold more land to the parish (T W Horsfield The History and Antiquities of Lewes (1824) 285). The houses were sold by the Lewes Poor Law Union in 1869 (HIL/6/28B/46-53), and the plan accompanying the particulars enables their site to be plotted; it is outlined in green on the plan
These sales reduced the size of the Langridge tenement, the quitrent of which was reduced from 1s 7½d to 1s 0d in 1807; the liability for that sum was apportioned among the owners of the twelve houses built on the site on 16 March 1829 (ACC 2327/3/1/2 pp177-8)
Before 1758, Philippa Pellatt of West Grinstead, spinster, had owned four messuages, barns, stables and land in Lewes All Saints, occupied by Robert Walter. On 24 and 25 March 1758 her executor Henry Woodward of East Grinstead, clerk, sold part of the property, consisting of a cottage and ¾a to William Langridge of Lewes All Saints, carpenter (1). It was described as
Small messuage or cottage with the yard, garden and orchard (¾a), occupied by [blank] Morris and [blank] Howell (E: St Nicholas Lane; S: road from Southover to Lewes Bridge; W: St Marys Lane and land belonging to the parsonage of St John sub Castro; N: St John parsonage land, land used with the house of Samuel Howell); except a piece of land (82' 6" E-W, 24' 9" N-S) with a well in it
By his will of 22 July 1794 William Langridge gave his wife Mary a life interest in his estate and left the remainder to his three children William Balcombe Langridge, Mary Langridge and Sarah Langridge in equal shares. William Langridge died on 24 September 1801 and his son proved the will in PCC on 7 April 1802. Sarah Langridge died on 5 March 1801 and her mother on 16 November 1802 (1)
By 1804 part of the property was used as a garden, timber-yard, carpenter's shop and saw-house. On 29 and 30 June 1804 W B Langridge and his sister Mary partitioned their father's estate, but retained equal shares of the yard and buildings; Philadelphia Frewen of Northiam, spinster, and Henry Brooker of Brighton, gent, acted as trustees (1)
[On 30 May 1828 the Langridges contracted will Henry Alderton of Newhaven, bargemaster, and William Goodjer of Lewes, painter, permitting them to build three houses on a frontage of 36 feet on St Nicholas Lane, which would subsequently be let to them for 50 years. The contact contains a plan, identifying the plot as the site of the future 6, 8 and 10 St Nicholas Lane. A similar contract for the land immediately to the west was prepared but not executed (LAN 295)]
By 1829 the whole property was described as five houses and the carpenter's yard
Alderton and Googier built three houses, but no lease was executed, and on 23 January 1829 Langridge and his sister conveyed the two northerly houses to Edmund Isted of Southover, servant, and his trustee John Boxall of Lewes, builder, for £315, of which £201 12s was paid to Alderton. A plan appears in the margin of the deed (1-2)
The third house, subsequently 6 St Nicholas Lane, built by William Goodjer, was let to him by the Langridges for 90 years for £76 and a rent of £4 13s 0d, with an option to purchase after six years, on 18 February 1829; other property sold to Goodjer, on which he had built numbers 2 and 4 St Nicholas Lane, lay to the south. Goodjer exercised his option under the lease in favour of Edmund Isted, owner of numbers 8 and 10, to whom number 6 was conveyed for £160 (of which £82 was paid to Goodjer) on 13 April 1829. Isted was given a right of way to St Nicholas Lane through the yard of numbers 2 and 4, which was not to extend 'to the riding, leading or driving of any horse, cow, hog or any other animal' (3-4)
On 27 February 1846 Edmund Isted mortgaged all three houses for £210 at 5% to Robert Newman of Brighton, esq. Newman, acting under a power of sale, had the properties auctioned at the Star Inn on 12 May 1856 but they failed to sell
On 23 December 1856 Newman sold them to Edmund Pullinger of Lewes, cooper and builder, for £275, which Pullinger borrowed from him by mortgage (5-8)
Newman the mortgagee died on 31 July 1864 and his executors William Lambe of East Blatchington, yeoman, and Thomas King the younger of Brighton, gent (who had proved his will of 24 November 1855 on 9 September 1864) served Pullinger with notice of repayment on 27 February 1865 and on 19 July, acting under a power of sale, they sold the houses for £290 to Thomas Venus of 6 North Row, Park Lane, London, gent (9-12)
Venus died on 14 February 1868 and his daughter Jane Elizabeth (born 23 December 1837), wife of Ambrose Lockett of New Malden, Surrey, obtained letters of administration on 16 March and paid succession duty on his estate (including 1 Pleasant Place and a house in Wellington Street, Lewes, and a third of a house at Chapel Hill, Cliffe) on 17 June 1869. Ambrose Lockett died on 30 May 1896 and his widow on 20 May 1903. By her will of 26 September 1902, proved by Harry Albert Venus of Lewes, secretary to a public company, on 3 July 1903, she left the houses to her son Henry Lockett of 132 Lavender Hill, New Wandsworth, glass-cutter and glazier, who sold the houses for £400 to Alfred Wycherley of Lewes, house-agent, on 24 February 1903 (13-16)
On 18 May 1906 Wycherley sold the houses for £585 to Sarah Beach of 32 Newfield Road, Newhaven, wife of James Beach, engine-driver; the conveyance is annotated with the rooms in the houses, their rents and the name of one of the tenants. An undated memorandum with the deeds incorporates a draft condition of sale requiring no further evidence that Jane Elizabeth Lockett was the daughter and only next of kin of Thomas Venus (17-19)
On 10 April 1929 Sarah Beach sold the houses for £500 to Ann Pollard, wife of Alfred Edwin Pollard of 65 Priory Street, Lewes, retired labourer. Mrs Pollard died on 9 November 1936 and her will of 15 October was proved by Catherine Florence Parrish of The Manse, Grange Road, Lewes, widow, on 6 December 1936. On 12 May 1937 Mrs Parrish paid two guineas to Frank Verrall of Piccards Cottage, Sandy Lane, Guildford, lord of the manor of Southover, to redeem the manorial liability on number 6, 8 and 10 St Nicholas Lane. On 13 May 1937 Mrs Parrish sold numbers 8 and 10 St Nicholas Lane to Frank Washer of Church Lane, Ringmer, builder (20-25)
Mrs Pollard had left 6 St Nicholas Lane to the occupier, her brother Harry Jordan, and her executrix executed an assent on 29 September 1939. He died on 31 August 1941 and his will of 30 March 1938, leaving his estate to his wife Mary Ann Jordan, was proved on 8 October 1941 by his executrix Catherine Florence Parrish, who assented to the bequest to Mrs Jordan, the occupier, on 20 November 1941. Mrs Jordan died on 24 December 1950 and her will of 4 November 1941 was proved on 8 February 1951. The beneficiary and executrix, her sister Emily Louisa Taylor of 73 Highdown Road, Lewes, wife of David William Taylor, sold the house for £550 to Florence Dorothy Ryan of Beaumont, Dittons Road, Eastbourne, wife of Harold Ryan, on 19 February 1951 (26-29)
On 30 November 1960 Mrs Ryan, the occupier, sold the house for £1650 to Cynthia Mary Methuen of Southover Manor School, spinster, who on 5 December granted a tenancy agreement at £40 a year to Mabel Jane Harries, married woman, her tenant at 2 Garden Cottages, Castle Banks, Lewes, which Miss Methuen required for her own occupation
On 4 May 1976 Miss Methuen, then of 2 Garden Cottages, sold 6 St Nicholas Lane, which had been 'vacant for some considerable time', to Marguerite Douglas Thompson of 29 Lansdowne Street, Hove, spinster, for £6000 (30-36)
Miss Thompson, an artist in stained glass who undertook work at the house, sold the property to Lesley Gorski in April 1994 (personal comment)
Number not used
Letter from James Hurdis (1738-1816), Seaford, to Vicesimus Knox, Tonbridge
Source of acquisition
: Photocopies purchased 12 November 2001 (ACC 8451)
Copies information
: The original of this letter is among Knox's correspondence in the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Yale University, Osborne Shelves fc 76/III/201
Related information
: For the Revd Vicesimus Knox (1752-1821), the author of Essays Moral and Literary (1778) and many other works, and for Hans Sloane (1660-1753), physician, see Dictionary of National Biography; for a pedigree of the Hurdis family of Seaford, see M A Lower, Memorials of... Seaford (1855), 62-65
The writer of this letter, a doctor of medicine, was the cousin of James Hurdis (1763-1801), professor of poetry at Oxford, with whom he is confused in the Beinecke handlist
Letter from James Hurdis, Seaford, to [Vicesimus Knox, headmaster of Tonbridge School]
4 Sep 1786
The health of JH's son [?Thomas Bowyer Hurdis (1769-)]; advises gentle exercise on horseback, 'as little animal food as he can', and bleeding; has ordered some of Sir Hans Sloane's milk chocolate from town
Copies of topographical drawings in the Burrell Manuscripts
Source of acquisition
: Photocopies purchased 4 May 2001 (ACC 8341)
Supplementary information
: The originals of these copies are bound into six volumes. For a detailed list of contents, see AMS6592/7 and 8 or Catalogue of the manuscript maps, charts and plans, and topographical drawings in the British Museum, 2 (1844, reproduced 1966), 196-292, or H Simmons, 'A catalogue of drawings in the British Museum, relating to the county of Sussex' (SAC 28 148-179)
These copies were obtained in connection with the publication of Sussex Depicted, edited by John Farrant and published in 2001 as the centenary volume of the Sussex Record Society (SRS 85)
The views were commissioned by William Burrell (1732-1796) from the Lewes artists James Lambert the elder (1725-1788) and his nephew James Lambert the younger (1744-1799) and from the Swiss-born artist Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1733-1794). For these individuals, a history of Burrell's project and reproductions of a selection of the views, see Sussex Depicted
Hastings Rape
Archival history
BL Add MS 5670
S H Grimm
Pevensey Rape
Archival history
BL Add MS 5671
S H Grimm
Lewes Rape
Archival history
BL Add MS 5672
S H Grimm
Pevensey and Hastings Rapes
Archival history
BL Add MS 5676
Lewes, Pevensey, Bramber and Chichester Rapes
Archival history
BL Add MS 5677
Various views
Archival history
BL Add MS 5678
Contents of AMS6592/1-6
In alphabetical order of parish giving parish, view, year, artist, reference, database number, notes of publication and reference in Sussex Depicted; [John Farrant, 2001]
Contents of AMS6592/1-6
In order of reference giving parish, view, year, artist, reference, database number, notes of publication and reference in Sussex Depicted; [John Farrant, 2001]
Number not used
Records of the union club, Seaford
Separately catalogued for A2A
Source of acquisition
: Purchased 16 Oct 2001 (ACC 8436)
Related information
: For minutes of the trustees of Gorham's Gift, 1936-1986, see DB/B 133/1-2; for files relating to Gorham's Gift, [1810]-1981, see ACC 7600/312-356
The album was compiled by Ambrose Gorham, (born 28 October 1853; died 30 June 1933) who lived at Stud House, Telscombe, The album was produced as a project to commemorate Telscombe, and all the photographs were taken in the summer of 1904, probably in July or early August. Beatrice Annie Windless was pregnant when she was photographed either with her son Walter or an older child (AMS6595/1 p18 below); her daughter Norah Winifred was born on 16 August 1904 (baptised 16 October 1904). The baby held by Mary Reed (AMS6595/1 p48 below) was probably Eveline Violet Reed who was born 30 June 1904 (baptised 31 July 1904), not Stephen as suggested in the caption. Further information concerning the people photographed can be obtained from the 1901 census returns (PRO RG13/0919; ESRO XA81/160) and the Telscombe baptism register (PAR 491/1/2/1; transcript available)
The population of Telscombe at the time of the 1901 census was 120 (61 males and 59 females), so well over half the parish are represented here. The more important members of the community are included, such as Charles Steyning Beard, who lived at the Manor House, and the rector; employees of Gorham (not resident in the village at the time of the 1901 census) and some employees of Beard are shown. In all probability they were all inhabitants of the village itself, and people who lived in Brighton Road or Telscombe Cliff (including the coastguards) were excluded. The name of the photographer is unknown, but may well have been Gorham himself: the initials on the album cover are those of his signature, and the shadow of the photographer which is occasionally visible looks like his
The recipient of the album, Frederic John Poole, became rector of St John-sub-Castro, Lewes, in 1910, and was Prebendary of Hurst in Chichester Cathedral in 1911. It is likely that he or a member of his family added the captions on the photographs, the text of which has been italicised in this list. AMS6595/2-3 were found inside the album
Ambrose Gorham owned race horses, which trained on the gallops on Telscombe Tye. His horse Shannon Lass won the Grand National in 1902, and Gorham celebrated by restoring Telscombe church. He purchased Telscombe Farm, including the sheep rights or common pasture on Telscombe Tye, from the trustees of Henry Smith's Charity on 17 September 1923. He eventually owned 260 acres of farmland in the locality, including much of the village of Telscombe, with the exception of the manor of Telscombe, which Charles William Neville purchased from James Ambrose Harman on 1 September 1924. He employed many of the village inhabitants, and was a local benefactor who gave every child a book and a pair of Wellington boots at Christmas. He built the Village Club, a hall near the Manor House, for the village as a place of recreation
Gorham died on 30 June 1933, and bequeathed his Telscombe property and rights to Brighton Corporation for retention in perpetuity, in order that the village should remain unspoiled. A charitable trust scheme, called Gorham's Gift, was established by an order of the High Court in December 1935 to ensure the preservation of the area 'with its present rural characteristics in order that the public and especially the inhabitants of Telscombe, Piddinghoe and Brighton may have recourse thereto for quiet and peaceful recreation and meditation'. The property was administered by the trust and for a long period was leased to Ernest Thornton-Smith until the latter's death in 1971. In May 1975 the aim of the trustees was described as 'to renovate and repair the dwellings under their control in Telscombe, to improve the conditions and appearance of the village and to work towards creating a fully populated living community'
Album Telscombe and its Inhabitants 1904
Cover includes inscription A[mbrose] G[orham]; 1904
ii Inscribed F[rederic] J[ohn] Poole from A Gorham July [19]05
iii-viii Printed poem Sussex autographed by Rudyard Kipling
1 Village with string of racehorses
2 Parish church from south-west
3 F[rederic] J[ohn] Poole, rector of Telscombe & Vicar of Piddinghoe 1901-1910 afterwards Prebendary of Bishopshurst [Hurst in Chichester Cathedral]
4 Mrs F J [Eleanor] Poole
5 Miss M [Margery] E Poole (& Peter) [dog]
6 Miss H Poole (& Jill) [dog]
7 J C Poole
8 G C Poole
9 A Gorham (signature)
10 C[harles] S[teyning] Beard (farmer) [Manor House, Telscombe]
11 R A D Beard (Mrs C S Beard)
12 Ernest Beard (farmer) [brother of Charles Steyning Beard]
13 Mrs Woodland (? Woodward) housekeeper at the Stables
14 Mrs [Charlotte] Clinker/ Housekeeper to the Beards
15 J[ames] F Hackett/Trainer of Shannon Lass and others [Racing Stables, Telscombe]
16 ? Mrs Hackett
17 Harry Windless/Blacksmith
18 Mrs [Beatrice Annie] Windless (and toddler) [? Walter Windless, baptised 9 Aug 1903, or an older child]
19 ? Windless Children [includes the child shown in AMS6595/1 p18
20 ? [baby Windless]
21 ? [Arthur] Box (head stable lad?) [Racing Stables]
22 ? Mrs [Lucy] Box
23 Miss Norman (school teacher)
24 ? Miss Norman's Aunt or Mother/? Mrs Allan
25 Dick Weller senior stable lad
26 ? F B Rees rider of Shannon Lass
27 Stable Lad
28 Stable Lad/? Micky Doyle
29 Stable Lad
30 Stable Lad
31 Stable Lad 'Tiny'
32 Stable Lad
33 Stable Lad
34 Steele/ A[rthur] G[orham]'s Cowman
35 ? (unidentified male farmworker)
36 Izzard in his Sunday best/gardener at Rectory
37 Maid at Stables
38 Ellen Reed/maid at stables
39 ? Ellen or Emily Read
40 Some of the Reed family and the Cottages on the Bank. Church in left background
41 ?3 young Reads [Reed]
42 ?3 young Woollers [Wooler]
43 Gray - Beard's foreman
44 Mrs Gray
45 Gray's daughter Mrs?
46 ? (unidentified female)
47 [?Thomas] Read [Reed]
48 Mrs [?Mary Jane] Read [Reed] and No ?18 (Stephen) in front of Telscombe church [the baby was probably Eveline Violet Reed born 30 June 1904, not Francis Stephen Reed, who was born 12 June 1906]
49 [James] Wooller [Wooler] /Beard's shepherd
50 Mrs [Alice] Wooller [Wooler]
51-52 Unidentified male farmworkers
53 Gray's son-in-law Beagley
54 Will Read
55 ? Ernest /?Harry/? Read [Ernest and Harry Reed were sons of Thomas and Mary Reed, and are photographed in front of cottages on the bank, as in p40 above]
56 [Frank] Angel/Beard's Cowman
57 Mrs [Martha] Angel
58 2 young Angels
59 Wooler children/? on the well kerbstone - bucket in background
60 Ploughman (with horse-drawn plough) and boy
61 Boys and horses at the village pond
62 Blank
63 Coloured design for window in memory of Maria Gorham, dedicated by her son, 1904
Christmas card
With photographs by W A Rouch of Ambrose Gorham (mounted); pure bred Sussex bull and fighting cock, with verse
Photograph of a church service, Telscombe churchyard
nd, 1933
Photopress, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, EC4 (B764/2 GO) nd, [1933]
The congregation are grouped around the memorial to Ambrose Gorham that was erected by his friends, and the photograph probably shows its dedication
Photocopy of AMS6595/1
Pedigree of the Curteis family of Kent
Source of acquisition
: Document given 22 January 2002 (ACC 8544)
Related information
: For the archive of the Curteis family, see principally SAS/JC, SAS/DE; DAP and AMS5995, 6029, 6128 (especially 6128/3/1) and 6250 (an annotated copy of Berry's Sussex Genealogies); for photographs of Wartling and Windmill Hill in 1889, see AMS6027
Administrative history
The Curteis family were originally from Tenterden in Kent. Jeremiah Curteis (1735-1806) established himself as an attorney in Rye, where he was town clerk from 1756 to 1800; he also served as steward of the Frewen estate at Brickwall in Northiam. Both he and his son, Edward Jeremiah Curteis (1762-1835), purchased extensive estates in the Rye area and also at Tenterden, Goudhurst, Hawkhurst and in Romney Marsh. From 1807 their principal residence was Windmill Hill Place in Wartling
On the death of Edward Jeremiah in 1835 the Windmill Hill Place estate was inherited by his son Herbert Barrett Curteis (1793-1847) and then in turn to his son Herbert Mascall Curteis (1824-1895) and to his son Herbert Curteis (1849-1919). On his death in 1919 the estate was sold by his son Herbert Charles Curteis
This document passed by descent from Herbert's daughter Isabella (b1882), who married John Bernard Garman, son of Edwin Cornelius Garman of The Limes, Boreham Street, Wartling, physician, on 1 July 1903; the donor is their son
This document, written on four membranes of parchment, is a copy of a pedigree exemplified by William Segar, Garter King of Arms, from the original in the hands of Sir George Curteis of Otterden in Kent in 1619; the bottom membrane is turned up and the remains of a seal-tag survive
From the reference to armorial glass at Romney church in 1612, it is likely that the original pedigree was compiled in that year
The pedigree closes with a large achievement of the arms of Norton Curteis, eldest son of George Curteis of Maidstone, with Curteis (argent, a chevron sable, three bulls' heads caboshed gules) quartering Twaights and Segrave. Those arms derive from the marriage of Thomas Curteis of Appledore, who died in 1527, to Joan, daughter and co-heir of Edward Twaights, Lord Warden of the Five Ports. The empty circles providing for the insertion of three more generations of the family have not been completed
The document has faded, probably as a result of display, in antiquity. Probably in the early eighteenth century, the brown ink of the original has been over-written, with the occasional error and the exclusion of words which the transcriber found illegible, in darker ink. The pedigree was again annotated with dates in about 1800. An area of parchment has been deliberately cut out of the third membrane
'This [recte The] Desent of the Antient Family of the Curteises in the County of Kent, Gentlemen, faithfully collected out of the Office of Armes the publicke Records of the Kingdom Private Evidences of this [recte the] Family and other venerable Monuments of Antiquity'
Pedigree of the Curteis family of Tenterden and elsewhere in Kent, drawing descent from Stephen Curteis of Appledore, c1380, to 1612
Information quoted from escheator's inquisition, wills at Canterbury, armorial glass in Romney church in 1612, an armorial roof-boss in the cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral, a pedigree of Cobham by Robert Glover, Somerset Herald (d1588) and armorial glass in a chapel in Chilham church
Subscribed: 'This Coate of Armes doune to Norton Curteis Eldest Son of George Curteis of Maidstone, is a true Copie, taken out of the Originall now in the hands of Sir George Curteis of Otterdein in Kent which was Exemplified by the Authority of the office of Armes testified by the Scale and confirmed under the hand of William Segar Garter Principall Kinge of Armes Anno Domini 1619'
Booklet of notes from Shadows of the Past by Hester Peel of Heronden [in Tenterden], Kent
Contains mentions of members of the Curteis family of Kent taken from published records, 1272-1712; P Leslie
Source of acquisition
: Photocopy given 8 May 2002 (ACC 8564) and subsequently augmented by other copied material
Related information
: For Abbot's diary, with account of Dance's work at Kidbrooke, see PRO 30/9/10/8, summarised in Jill Lever (ed) The Drawings of George Dance (forthcoming, 2002)
For inventories of 1744 and 1785, see ABE 24A/5, 6; for an account of the house to accompany a view by George Lambert, c1740, see John Farrant (ed) 'Sussex Depicted' (Sussex Record Society 85 (2001)) 232
For another account of the house, see W H Hills History of East Grinstead (1906) 200-5
Administrative history
Kidbrooke was built by William Nevill, Lord Abergavenny (c1697-1744) in 1734
Charles Abbot (1757-1829), speaker of the House of Commons 1802-1817, created Lord Colchester in 1817, purchased Kidbrooke from Henry [Nevill], Lord Abergavenny in 1803 (PRO 30/9/10/40)
This group of documents consists of photocopies of material in other repositories relevant to the history of the site
Preliminary design by George Dance for Kidbrooke Park, Forest Row [no ref.]
Copy of a design for a five-bay Tuscan colonnade with flanking pedimented arches
Source of acquisition
: Sir John Soane's Museum, D2/8/12
Original ink and sepia wash 27cm x 46cm; shows existing two-storey, five-bay pedimented house with existing extensive chimney-stack lightly added in pencil; scale: 12 feet: 1 inch
This drawing, referred to as showing a rebuilt south front by Colvin (A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, 292), in fact shows the addition of a colonnade and arches to an existing east front, the principal front of the house
Other documents relating to Kidbrooke [no ref. or date]
Pages 169-171 of Paul Amsinck, Tunbridge Wells and Neighbourhood (London, 1810)
Source of acquisition
: Sussex Archaeological Society Library, Accession 10943
With a history of Kidbrooke from 1724, augmented with a drawing of the east front by Amsinck, engraved by Letitia Byrne, published by Edmund Lloyd, Harley Street, London, 1 May 1809, and a portrait of Charles Abbot, drawn by J Jackson from an original by J[ames] Northcote, engraved by C[harles] Picart and published by T[homas] Cadell and W[illiam] Davies, Strand, London, 27 Jan 1814
Watercolours of Kidbrooke Park and estate by James Bourne (1775-1863)
Source of acquisition
: Sussex Archaeological Society Library, Accession 4827, gift of Ivan D Margary
4827.2 gamekeeper's cottage, Kidbrooke Lane
4827.3 Kidbrooke, west front
4827.4 Kidbrooke from the south, with windmill on horizon
4827.5 Kidbrooke, east front, seen from the Forest Row entrance
East front of Kidbrooke
nd, [c1800]
Source of acquisition
: Sussex Archaeological Society Library, Accession 1045, no provenance
Engraved by J[ohn] C[harles] Varrall from a drawing by J[ohn] P[reston] Neale; published by Jones & Co, Temple of the Muses, Finsbury Square, London
East front of Kidbrooke
1 Nov 1819
Archival history
Sussex Archaeological Society Library, Accession 1047, Dr F B Penfold bequest
Engraved by J[ohn] Greig from a drawing by Thomas Higham for Excursions through Sussex; published by Longman & Co, Paternoster Row, [London]
East front of Kidbrooke
nd, [c1800]
Archival history
Sussex Archaeological Society Library, Accession 1049, Dr F B Penfold bequest
Closely based on AMS6597/4
Number not used
Map of Sir Charles M Burrell's Hamsey Place Farm by William Figg, 1810 with additions of 1855 and 1856
Source of acquisition
: Photocopy given 17 May 2002 (ACC 8574)
'Plan of Hamsey Place Farm situate in the several Parishes of Hamsey, South-Malling and Ringmer in the County of Sussex Belonging to Sir Charles M Burrell Bart'
Related information
: See also WSRO Add MS 2000
Shows an original estate of 678½ acres, of which 3½ acres lie in Ringmer, 2¼ acres in South Malling and the rest in Hamsey; shows Lewes Race-course, Offham chalk-pit and turnpike gate, towing-path, lock, weir and ford on the Ouse Navigation; path of Lewes - London railway added in pencil
Original is ink and colour on parchment, 28½" x 34¼"; shows fields (indicating land-use), roads and their directions, names of neighbouring owners and ownership of boundaries; table of reference with field-names and acreages; scale of 13.3": 1 mile
Map annotated to show land (38a 1r 31p) purchased from R B Comber in 1855 and retained by Sir C M Burrell after exchanges in 1856, former glebeland (3a 1r 4p) taken in exchange for part of Late Comber's in 1856 and land (5a 2r 39p) taken in exchange with Thomas Whitfeld for part of Late Comber's and part of former glebe in 1856
Copy letter of Edward la Zouche, baron Zouche, as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, to the bailiff of Pevensey
Letter from Edward la Zouche, baron Zouche (1556-1625), Barbican, [London], to the bailiff of Pevensey
9 Feb 1622
To call the parties mentioned in the enclosed petition [not present] to nominate an arbitrator to join the bailiff in hearing the case, and to terminate it, or else to certify EZ by whose fault it cannot be
Superscribed: 389
For Edward la Zouche, president of Wales 1602-1614 and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports 1615-1624, see Dictionary of National Biography
A draft of this letter, in his hand, is in his register as Lord Warden (BL Add MS 37818 f76); a note in the margin identifies the parties as Sidrach Goodwin and others (on behalf of Elizabeth Ingram) against William Stone
The register, and another example of Zouche's hand (a letter of 1619 in BL Add MS 42075 f83) confirm that the present letter is not autographed but must be a contemporary copy, perhaps that received by the corporation of Pevensey
The earliest records of the Pevensey court begin in 1699 only [PEV 44]
John Ingram of Westham, yeoman, a widower, married Mary Hooke of Westham by licence on 21 June 1613; the bondsman was Richard Hooke of Westham, warrener [PAR 505/1/1/1, SRS 1 (1901) 86]. Their daughter Elizabeth was baptised there on 1 December 1616. Administration of the goods of John Ingram of Westham was granted to his widow Mary Ingram on 19 July 1620; the bondsman was William Goodwyn of Ringmer, yeoman, and it seems likely that the dispute was connected with John Ingram's estate [W/B5.64]
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