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Cooksbridge House |
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Description |
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The front (east) elevation of Cooksbridge House is largely tile-hung, but timber-framing in regular square panels is visible on the north end gabled elevation. There is a multiplicity of additions to the rear, including a staircase 'vyse'. Although the house is currently in two occupations, the front entrance is onto the side of the principal chimney stack. The stack on the north end of the house is a later addition. There are back-to-back hearths at ground floor level, of which the southern one has evidence for having been a 'cooking' hearth as there is evidence of a spit-rack fixing. There is the evidence for a 3 mullion ground floor window on the north-west wall. ConclusionsNothing in this house suggests a date earlier than the last quarter of the 1500s, the northern part being the earliest survival, and that is incomplete, as it must have extended at least a bay further south, where the stack has been built. The style of framing of the northern part, with half-height corner tension bracing and a wind-braced side-purlin roof over a utilised attic, all suggest a build with some kind of smoke control (bay or framed hood) although the stack and southern extension have obliterated the evidence. The evidence for a planked partition has echoes of the 'old-fashioned' dais end, and the old style medieval plan, with a 'hall' and 'solar', even if this house was always fully floored. The first change took place at the end of the 1600s, with the large stack serving back-to-back hearths, and an even larger usable attic space. The house was probably still in one occupation, and the southern hearth was definitely a cooking hearth, so that the northern fire-place was then for a 'best' room. Without much visible joisting, it is difficult to say where earlier staircases would have been. The large rear staircase vyse was probably added in the 1700s, bringing access to the cellar under cover, and making extra space within the house. |
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| These notes have been compiled from survey reports prepared by Dr Annabelle Hughes. The full reports have been deposited in the Sussex Archaeological Society Library, Barbican House, Lewes where they can be consulted by researchers. | |
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A House at Cooks Bridge in the occupation of Mr John Berry. |
©2007 Sussex Archaeological Society
