Tulleys Wells

Description

This double-pile farm house is aligned north-south. The main facade faces east and is symmetrically divided into three bays, with a central door flanked by sash windows with side panels. The building is Flemish-bond brickwork, making use of grey headers in places, with a tiled roof, half-hipped at each end with a central valley, and with internal end stacks. There are two stacks on the west elevation-the northernmost (external) having been added at the beginning of this century-and one original sliding sash at first floor. There is a small single-storey building with a pitched roof against the northern elevation. The whole southern elevation has been tile-hung. A single-storey addition has been made against the western elevation, and a contemporary sun-room. The well is now west of the northern rear stack.

Although some internal partitions have been adjusted, the original plan is largely unaltered. The main staircase is central in the front half of the house, and this is flanked by two ground floor rooms with two rooms above. Each of these rooms is heated, there having been a large ingle-nook to the north bay, now concealed behind a small hearth with flanking cupboards. A small closet above the front entrance is lit by the central window. The only access at ground floor between the front and rear of the house seems to have been by a doorway to the north of the stairs. The stair to a cellar under the south-eastern room is accessed from the rear part of the house.

The rear half of the house always seems to have been divided into two, although not quite as now, the southern part being the larger, and being served by a large ingle-nook. There was some evidence of ritual protection markings on the bressumer. There was originally access between the north-west room and the single-storey dairy building. This is mirrored by the first floor arrangement, where the south-west room has a small angled hearth onto the stack, a landing area, and an end chamber now divided into two. The present attic stairs are contained and within the landing area and joisting has been cut for their insertion. However, there is evidence on the joisting at ground and first floor levels to suggest that the original separate access to the attic rooms was directly from the rear of the house, without any access to first floor.

The attic rooms are completely habitable. Those at the front are lit by two original dormers (a photograph shows that the central dormer was added during the second quarter of the 20th century), and at the rear by windows in the end elevations. The roof is constructed with staggered butt-purlins, with two parallel ridges and end half-hips, and there are no ridge boards.

Conclusions

The importance of this house lies in the fact that the date of its construction is well documented in a contemporary diary, as between August and December 1735. This makes it an important bench-mark in house development in this area. There is also documentation for subsequent occupation and ownership which give clues to modifications and changes.

Double-pile houses generally began to be built from the end of the 1600s, although there is an early dated example of 1629, and their introduction tended to be nationwide. The service rooms could then be relegated to the rear of the principal rooms. The plan could vary according to the relative positions of entry and stairs, but the drawing-room and parlour were at the front, the kitchen and scullery etc at the rear, with easy access to the well. The earlier examples tend to be roofed with a central valley, although the problems this could create, and the introduction of lighter slate, led to the development of single roofing, using full hips on each elevation.

This house clearly shows the division between living and service areas, with the added division between the 'chambers' of the household and servants, by means of a separate stair.

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.

Tulleys Wells Farmhouse in the 1930s

Tithe Data

229 House, Buildings etc.
(Tulleyswells Farmhouse)

1841 Census

Tenement Analysis

Buildings

Archaeology

Old Maps

Further Information