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Previous Handouts in the following order:
Please use the scroll bar or page down to find the information you want.  Bought by Brian and Jean Roberts in 1958. It was relatively unaltered since it had been built some time in the 19th century, except a lean-to kitchen had been added to the Western half and a free standing toilet, (brick and tile), to the Eastern half. Both the original kitchens had suspended floors, which were replaced with quarry tiles on spoil. In the 1911 Sale Brochure the Eastern cottage is listed as having an E C (earth closet). There was a benchmark cut into a blue brick on the east of what is now the front door. It had sash windows and a six-flue stack. There was a shared well very close to the back wall. The cottages had 4½ inch partition walls with the outside wall being 11 inch cavity walls, very early for this type of building. The cavity had occasional bricks laid across as well as very heavy galvanised wall ties. Each cottage was two up and two down, with a larder under the stairs, and a third bedroom in the centre of the roof space with a window in the gable end and stair case ending in the centre of the room with a matchboard guard round three sides. The T-shaped outhouse comprised of a bucket toilet (standing on large stone slab), fuel/tool shed for each cottage, shared wash house with brick and cast zinc copper and a bake house with brick bread oven (with domed roof). ‘Vandalised’ by Brian and Jean, the cottages were turned into one with one central front door. During the alterations, a local builder removed a benchmark that was situated to the West of the old Western front door. The Local Planning Authority insisted on a cement wash on the brickwork to disguise the different bricks used for the lean-to garage. The inside cottage wall of the garage has been left to show the original brickwork, including the lime mortar pointing. Up until 1960 there was no water sanitation, (outside facilities only). There was one cold tap only in each kitchen and a shallow sink, (both now put to good use in the garden). Waste was fed to a 2 inch land drain and then to a shared 250 gallon cesspool and soak-away. The rent received then from the two tenants was 10/- a week for the East side, and 11/9 for the other side, with Brian and Jean paying the rates and water rates. Ownership. Brian and Jean bought the cottages in 1958 from Dorothy Ann Dallyn, (Miss). The cottages had passed to her from Mrs. D M Dallyn, widow of Benjamin Walter Dallyn. Benjamin Walter Dallyn had bought the cottages in 1925 from Miss Minnie Francis Spong and Florence Spong of Warren House Farm. (Both these ladies were active in the suffragette movement). Transacted from James Spong to Miss Minnie Spong and Miss Florence Spong sometime between 1913 and 1925 – possibly by death of James. Minnie and Florence Spong sold the cottages in August 1913 to James W Spong, Domestic Machine Manufacturer. Miss Minnie Spong obtained mortgage from Brambletye order of Foresters £200 in 1912. Possibly to repay a private loan obtained for the purchase the previous year. Minnie Spong had purchased them in November 1911 for £350 when they were put up for auction by Emma Harvey and the East Grinstead Estate Company Ltd. The Spong family ran Warren House farm as the Felbridge Poultry farm and what became nos. 1 and 2 Vine Cottages, were originally nos. 1 and 2 Warren Farm Cottages. In April 1911, Emma Harvey and the East Grinstead Estate Company Ltd. purchased the Felbridge Place Estate, of which nos. 1 and 2 Warren House Cottages were part. The Estate was conveyed by Charles Lane Sayer and Alfred Leighton Sayer who were the beneficiaries of the will of Dr. Charles Henry Gatty who died in 1903. Dr. Charles Henry Gatty had no direct line heir and the Sayers’ were relatives on his mother’s side of the family. On 24th October 1881 an indenture and conveyance was made between Dr. Charles Henry Gatty and Eliza Gorringe for the property. It is not known if it was for land only or cottages thereon. If the cottages were built prior to 1881, this would be very early for agricultural cottages to have been built with cavity walls, although not impossible. The orchard plot, on which stands a pair of semi-detached bungalows, nos. 111 and 113 Crawley Down Road, was sold off by Miss Dallyn to Mr. Egerton , (the nurseryman of Copthorne Road), in 1955. He then sold the plot to Mr. Harbour who developed it.
The Roberts family moved to ‘Littlecote’ in 1936. Unaltered since then apart from small extensions to rear of kitchen and replacement of slatted timber shed with double garage. Both now need renewing!
 West Park was one of several parks on the Estate owned by the Bysshe family who lived at Bysshe Court in 1382. Previous mention of a park in Horne of 200 acres, probably West Park, was held by John de Wysham, c. 1334. The word park comes from the Saxon word ‘pearrot’ or ‘parwg’ which means, ‘a place enclosed by a paling’. The Clayton family acquired West Park around 1677 when Sir Robert Clayton and John Morris, his partner, acquired the manor of Bletchingley whose lands extended down to Hedge Court Heath. On the death of Morris he left his share of the Estate and his wealth to Sir Robert Clayton. During the Clayton ownership they amassed a substantial area of land and so the Estate passed down through the Clayton’s until the early 1700’s when the then owner, another Robert, sold the reversion of the manor of Bletchingley and about 8,000 acres of land, including West Park, to the Kenrick family to clear his debts. This family was related by marriage and so the name Kenrick Clayton emerges. This name appears on maps, starting with the Evelyn map of the Felbridge Estate of 1748, owning large sections of the Felbridge area. Around 1787 J W Ewart bought land, including West Park, after the death of Robert Bulkeley. In 1810 Ewart sold West Park of 200 acres, plus parts of the Estate to J W Willet. Some time around 1869 George Palmer of Huntley and Palmer fame purchased West Park. It was in 1869 that the residence known as West Park House was erected. His son, Dr. Alfred Palmer, who used it primarily as a shooting lodge, extended the property in 1898. During the ownership of the Palmers they amassed an Estate of 2,329 acres. On the death of Alfred Palmer and the subsequent sale, in September 1936, the Estate included the residence of West Park house standing in 10 acres of it’s own grounds and parkland, four private houses, twenty one farms and smallholdings, a large number of cottages and 302 acres of woodland, mostly oak. West Park House was considered to be of moderate proportions and well laid out. It contained three reception rooms, ten bedrooms and two bathrooms, with a large garage and stabling accommodation. There was a large game larder near the kitchen, as the shooting potential of the Estate was on average 800 pheasants each season, a recreation room and servants quarters. Since its sale in 1936 the Estate has been split and West Park House and grounds have had a chequered history. It was occupied up until 1997/8 but had been divided into bed-sit accommodation on the first floor, probably during the 1950’s. It currently stands empty with planning consent to convert it into four houses. There is still the impression of its former grandeur, but is in need of some loving care and attention. Unfortunately most of the original features, such as fireplaces, range, bathroom suites etc., appear to have been replaced in the 1930’s, probably to modernise it! There is now a complete set of tiled fireplaces set into the ornate carved Edwardian fire surrounds.
West Park Road runs in front of the house and cut across the Estate, and was tolled. One set of Toll Cottages, still standing, are on the edge of the road opposite Perry Cottage and another toll cottage once stood between Bones Lane and Lowlands Farm at New Chapel.
The Clayton family wealth was established by Sir Robert Clayton a London scrivener who rose to become a Sheriff of London in 1671 and Lord Mayor of London in 1679. He inherited a fortune from his Uncle Robert Abbott to whom he had been apprenticed in 1648 and from his partner Alderman John Morris. Sir Robert died in 1707 and his property passed on to his nephew William, son of his brother William Clayton of Hambledon, Buckinghamshire. Sir William of Marden had two sons, Kenrick and William of Harlingford. Robert, only son of Kenrick, inherited the property and died childless in 1799. Succeeded by his cousin, William son of William of Harlingford. Much of the Bletchingley property was sold to the Kenrick family, already connected by marriage to the Claytons over the years, but principally in 1772 and 1779 when Robert Clayton sold the reversion of the manor of Bletchingley and about 8,000 acres of land to pay off his debts. Sir Robert Clayton returned for Bletchingley in 1689-90,1698 and 1702. His nephew William returned for Bletchingley in 1715, 1722 and 1727. From 1734 both he and his son Kenrick returned for Bletchingley together until William died and was replaced by his grandson William. Robert Clayton sat for Bletchingley between 1768-80 and 1787-96, overlapping his father Sir Kenrick Clayton until the latter’s death in 1769. John Kenrick sat for Bletchingley in 1780 and 1784. The Borough was then disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832.
(Notes taken from the S H C index)
 The Origin of ‘Newchapel’. New Chapel lies to the north of Felbridge and the west of Lingfield on the main road to London. It is dominated by the Mormon Temple complex and a new comer to the area, or anyone under forty five may believe that the name derives from the building of the Mormon ‘chapel’, but they would be wrong. The name goes back much further in history than 1955 with the construction of the temple. The Victoria History of the Counties of England – Surrey, published in 1912, states that ‘New Chapel is in the south of the parish of Godstone and it is said to preserve the name of the chapel granted to Nicholas Louvaine by Hugh Craan in 1365, but no trace of a chapel exists’. In 1365 Hugh Craan of Winchester granted to Sir Nicholas Louvaine and his heirs, the manor of Hedgecourt and Covelingley, called Lynlee, with the chapel in the park there, which he had received of the grant of John Husee. It is believed that Covelingley or Lynlee was probably Blindley Heath. The date of 1365 is the first mention of a chapel but there is no detail about where it stood. In 1610 New Chapel appears on a map of Surrey, which also shows a part of Sussex. The map states that it is ‘described by the travills of John Norden, augmented and performed by John Speede’. I believe this is the start of the new chapel and was so called because there was or had been an ‘old’ chapel situated in Chapel Park. The Evelyn map of 1748 shows Chapel Park, now called Chapel Wood, and Chapel Green where it is to this day. This map was commissioned by the Evelyn family to record their Felbridge Estate. In 1761 the Clayton family, who owned much of Surrey, from the manor of Bletchingley down as far as Hedgecourt Common which was then bounded by the Crawley Down Road in Felbridge and a bit beyond. They commissioned a map which was an ‘Examination of all the cottages on the Common’, of which they owned. When overlaid on a modern O/S map, matching the field shapes and boundaries, the ‘New Chapel’ appears to have stood on the common which is now where ‘The Homestead’ stands, to the east of the main London to Eastbourne road opposite Lowlands farm. The O/S map of 1789-1805, published in 1819, clearly shows Newchapel Common, with a building on it, although at what point it ceased to be a chapel is unknown, possibly in 1842 with the construction of Blindley Heath church or in 1865 with Felbridge church. What is known is that the site and the property that was on it was purchased as a dwelling, the property being demolished and rebuilt as ‘The Homestead’ shortly after the second world war by local builders Head Brothers. The Homestead stands in 2.75 acres, much of which is surrounded by remnants of a ditch and bank, with the original entrance leading to the old property about 100 metres past the Newchapel roundabout as you head north along the main London to Eastbourne road. In conclusion, I propose that there have been two chapels. The first was built before 1365, as there is already mention of ‘the chapel in the park’ at that time. I believe this was built in Chapel Park, part of the Hedgecourt area and situated behind Chapel Farm, now the Mormon Temple complex. This chapel lent its name to Chapel Park, Chapel Wood and Chapel Farm. A new chapel then replaced the ‘old’ chapel at some time before 1610 as it appears on the Norden/Speede map of that year. This chapel was built on the common where ‘The Homestead’ now stands. This new chapel gave its name to the area we now know as Newchapel.  The Evelyn Column James Evelyn originally erected the monument in 1786 in the grounds of Felbridge Place, in memory of his parents, Edward and Julia. It was commissioned in 1785 and Sir John Soane was the architect. John Soan was the son of a bricklayer and was born in 1753 near Reading. He entered the office of George Dance the younger in 1768 and then that of Henry Holland in 1770. After travelling in Italy, he set up in practice as an architect on his own account in London in 1781. He was not a good draughtsman himself and in particular employed J M Gandy to present his ideas. In 1786 he married the niece and heiress of George Wyatt, a rich builder, who left her his fortune. It was then that John began to spell his name Soane. In 1788 he was appointed architect to the Bank of England. In 1790, with his wife, now a wealthy woman, a large and varied collection was amassed which is now housed at the Soane Museum at 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, one of his homes. On his death in 1837 both the house and the collection were bequeathed to the nation. The commission for the Evelyn column was an unusual one for Soane as his early commissions were mostly for additions or alterations to houses. The designs were made in 1785. On 12th August 1785 an estimate was given for the work to be completed in Ashdown stone and Turners Hill stone, the former being more than twice the price of Turners Hill stone. The column was eventually made of Turners Hill stone at the cost of £19.00. The letter concluded that Soane’s fees would be fixed at £25.00 and that the foundations would be dug as soon as the stone arrived. On 27th August 1785 Soane gives a final figure for completing the column of £280.00, with £20.00 to be deducted if ‘planking the foundations is not necessary’. James Evelyn countersigned this letter and accepted the cost. The monument was designed to rest on a single square step on which a circular drum was to stand. The use of a circular drum was unusual as most surviving columns stand on square pedestals. Soane probably used the circular drum to be able to use the allegory of the snake devouring its own tail that naturally suited a round form. In Soane’s time this symbolised eternity and was in common use. Edward Foxhall was engaged to carve the snake. On the drum above the snake is the Wykehamist motto ‘Manners Makyth Man’ on the opposite side to the snake’s head. Above the drum there is 75 feet of tapering column, although the height has also been given as 80 feet and 85 feet. The actual drawings show the column to be 57 feet tall.
The column had been designed to be fluted but was left plain except for the thirteen verses of Addison’s Hymn to Gratitude with a fourteenth verse added between verses eleven and twelve of the original. There is speculation for the addition of a verse, one theory is that it was added by a local clergyman who felt that thirteen verses was not appropriate, and another theory, by a clergyman, is that as the verses were in couplets and a fourteenth verse would balance up the carving.
2. How shall words, with equal warmth
3. Thy Providence my life sustain’d,
4. To all my weak complaints and cries
5. Unnumbered comforts to my soul
6. When in the slippery paths of youth
7. Through hidden dangers, toils, and death,
9. Thy bounteous hand with worldly bliss
10. Ten thousand thousand precious gifts
11. Through every period of my life
12. O Blessed Jesus intercede,
13. When nature fails, and day and night
14. Through all eternity to Thee
Vidi Spectator 1712. Joseph Addison was born on 1st May 1672 in Milston, Wiltshire. His father was a clergyman and had instilled in him his religious learning. Addison was educated at Oxford and had his first poem published in 1693. He was politically ambitious becoming a WHIG politician, being elected to Parliament in 1708 but failing in his first attempt to make a speech he abandoned his political writing for the literary field. In his political career he was appointed under-secretary of state in 1706, secretary to the lord lieutenant in Ireland in 1709, and secretary to the Regency following the death of Queen Anne in 1714. His highest office was secretary of state in 1717-18, from which he retired with a generous pension. He was also known as a poet and essayist and was co-author to The Tatler and The Spectator. He is ranked among the minor masters of English prose style and credited with raising the general cultural level of the English middle classes. He died in 1719 and is buried in Westminster Abbey. Addison wrote the hymn that appears on the column in 1712, and the twin themes of the verses, besides praising God, were gratitude and eternity. The hymn expressed both the gratitude of James Evelyn towards his parents Edward and Julia, and the theme of eternity being reinforced in the symbol of the snake swallowing its own tail. To enforce his gratitude to his parents there is also a Latin dedication to them carved on the column. The inscription reads:
Jacobus Evelyn, Filius Edwardi Evelyn
AD MDCCLXXXVI
Translated:
The column shaft ends in a narrow scrolled neck and the entablature block is plain except for the words Soli Deo Gloria. Above the cornice there is a plinth supporting an urn shaped object with spiral flutings bearing the eternal flame. From a distance or from the ground the flame looks like three figures. The monument was erected in the grounds of Felbridge Place, the exact location is in dispute. It has been suggested that it once stood in the grounds of nos.80 or 76 Copthorne Road, or possibly in the vicinity of what is now The Felbridge Show Ground between 70 and 74 Copthorne Road, as there is no number 72. If you transpose an old map onto a modern O/S map it would appear that it had stood in the grounds of no. 76, which also had a deep depression at the end of the garden which may be significant. It would have towered above the village appearing from behind a strip of woodland known as Birch Grove that ran along the side of the Copthorne Road. During the middle of the 19th century the column was struck by lightening and slightly damaged but it remained on this site until the Felbridge Estate was split up and the Birch Grove area was developed. The Estate began to be split up in 1911 but it was not until 1926 that the Birch Grove area was put up for auction. The column then stood on lot 7 and the sale catalogue states: ‘Upon the back portion of this lot stands a memorial monument of about 75 feet in height constructed of stone, which is included in the purchase.’ This lot failed to sell either because there was no purchaser prepared to have the monument in their back garden or because the purchaser would have to bear the cost of its removal. At about this time a gentleman by the name of Sir Stephen Aitchison was staying in the neighbourhood and decided to purchase the plot and monument and re-erect it to embellish the grounds of his home, Lemmington Hall, Alnwick, (pronounced Annick), in Northumberland. Aitchinson had bought the shell of Lemmington Hall in 1913 and had made it habitable once again, living there from 1916 until his death. The monument was taken down in March 1927 and moved to Lemmington hall, probably by sea, at a cost of £1,470.00 by Diambers of London. It has been suggested that at the time of removal a box was found in the foundations which proved to be a time capsule. This may be just another disputed fact as there is no documented record of it being found or any record of what was in it if it was found. The column was then carried by railway, and finally a light electric railway specially constructed for the purpose, to the new site. There is dispute about the date of removal, as some villagers believe the monument left at a later date, but all the evidence points to its removal in 1927. A platform 30 feet 6 inches square was constructed in the parkland, on a line south from the house. A ha-ha to keep animals from the column surrounded this. The column was re-erected with the head of the snake and Soli Deo Gloria facing north to the house. Re-building was completed in 1928. Aitchison gave the plot of land in Felbridge on which it had stood to the Council on the understanding that it remained preserved as an open space. On the death of Sir Stephen Aitchison in 1942, his son, Sir William, had the lettering on the column re-cut as it had become damaged and worn due to the weather after its move to Northumberland. Since the death of Sir Stephen, the Hall has been gifted to a Convent of Roman Catholic Nuns, but the rest of the Estate was retained by the family, including the Park in which the column now stands looking out over the Northumbrian countryside.  As a postscript, in 1996 the Parish Council was debating suggestions for the Millennium 2000 Project which was a national event encouraging parish councils and others to come up with environmental schemes for their villages. The chosen scheme would then receive funding from the National Lottery to implement, and it was suggested that the Evelyn monument might be returned to Felbridge. Some enquiries were made into the feasibility of this but no response was received so the project was never pursued. Godstone, probably Goda’s Ton, may have been a portion of land in Walcnested given to Ethelred, (the Unready), by Aelfheah, a Saxon Nobleman, in his will in about 970. Goda, Ethered’s daughter and sister of Edward the Confessor, married Count Eustance of Boulogne in 1050 and although she died six years later it was possible that Eustance could lay claim to Goda’s Ton and therefore Walcnested when William the Norman was rewarding his victorious knights. The parish is recorded in the Domesday Book as being held by the Count himself and it continued to be held as of the Honour of Boulogne for several centuries. By 1178 the De Lucy family probably held Walcnested as of the Honour of Boulogne, when Reginald de Lucy had already given half of the church of Walcnested to the Abbey of Lesnes. Richard, his son, split the manor between two of his sisters on their marriages, giving the northern half to Lucy and Roger de St John, where they lived at Marden, and the southern half to Margaret and Odo de Dammartin with Lagham Manor. Their daughter Alice later sold Lagham to her uncle and thus the St Johns reunited the parish and established their seat at Lagham. In 1262, at the time of the Barons’ War, Roger de St John obtained a licence from Henry III to fortify his house with a dyke, towers and a stockade. It would appear that the stockade was never constructed as no postholes were found in any of the excavations that have been carried out at Lagham. Lagham contains two earthworks, one oval enclosure with a high bank and ditch comprising of six acres of land and two acres of water, and the other, a small earthwork which is rectangular and moated lying outside to the south-east of the main enclosure. A raised road ran from the earthworks at Lagham to the Roman Road 700 yards away to the west. The road from Lagham to Marden Park was diverted in the reign of Elizabeth I. It is possible a Roman camp stood on the present site of the house, as a stone found in the moat has a hole in the centre and answers to the description of an old sacrificial stone used in temples of early times. Lagham comes from Olde English, Laga-ham meaning flooded home, so called due to many springs in the neighbourhood. The first moat was probably no more than a ditch around the north-east of the land on which the house was built in order to deflect the surface water from the rising ground behind it. The great moat of 1262 measures 100ft from crest to crest of its banks and was about 24ft deep, the water being 8ft deep originally. Parts of the banks have been pushed down into the water, but there are still two acres of water in its channels. That the moat was dug twice could be seen in a trench out in the east bank; the first bank being only 4ft above water level and the second one rising to 16ft in some parts. Today the moat at Lagham is the largest non-military moat in south-east England, and the size of the moat indicates that the house of the St Johns must have been worth spending much labour upon. In the south-east corner of the enclosure was an ancient barn, 120ft long by 32ft wide. It was built with clay walls on shallow stone foundations over 3ft wide, the thatched roof being supported on an inner frame of timber, the posts of which slotted into short projecting stone walls. This great barn was demolished when the moat was built, possibly because the West end was permanently wet from water trapped by the clay banks of the moat. There is evidence that the East end, on slightly higher land, may have been rebuilt as a timber-framed structure on stone footings, possibly with a loft, and may have stood for several years longer. The manor courts may have been held in this barn. Towards the end of the 13th century a tiled floor was laid in one of the rooms of the house, probably the chapel. (There is no documentary evidence for a chapel but a house of this importance is likely to have had one). A large number of broken plain and decorated floor tiles were found in a dump during the archaeological excavations that were carried out in the mid 1970’s. Fourteen designs, along with black, dark green and yellow squares and triangles, were found and the style is known as the ‘Westminster type’, some being identical with those found in London, Kenilworth and Canterbury, though some designs appear to be new. One of the designs is that of the coat of arms of the Dammartin family, known as vaire, and though not unique to Lagham may have been chosen for its significance to the former lord of the manor. The St John family not only held Marden and Lagham but also by 1313 held the manor of Heggecourt alias Heycourt. It would appear that they were not entitled to this manor but had seized it on the death of John de Berewyk. By 1323-4 the manor had been taken into the hands of the King who committed the custody of the manor to Gilbert de Middleton until Roger Husee, the rightful heir of John de Berewyk and therefore to Heggecourt, had reached maturity. Lagham, with the rest of Walcnested, suffered severely from the Black Death in 1349, losing its lord and nearly all the tenants. In 1350 the female heir to the St John family, Margaret, married Sir Nicholas Lovaine, Knight of Penshurst, and her wealth allowed him to acquire large estates including both Lagham and in 1365 Hedgecourt which was held in the family until 1408. It may have been at about this time that a fire occurred at Lagham in the domestic buildings that lay beneath the present kitchen garden. Here there was a bakehouse and brewery with several other small rooms attached. During the excavations these rooms were found to contain pottery of the early to mid 14th century, covered by a layer of burning and the collapsed tiled roof. Margaret, the daughter of Margaret and Nicholas Lovaine, was sole heir to Lagham. She married Philip de St Clare and were holding Lagham in 1400. In 1408, on the death of Margaret, and six days later her husband Philip, Lagham passed to their son John. He held the manor of Lagham until 1418, when Thomas his brother and heir became lord. On his death in 1435 his lands were apportioned to his three daughters and Edith gained Lagham. She married Sir Richard Harcourt. By 1461 the sons of Margaret de Lovaine by her first marriage released all claims in the manor to the Harcourts. Sir Richard Harcourt died in 1488 and the manor passed to his grandson and heir Miles. During the time that the Lovaine family was lord of the manor the ownership is complicated and at different times other names appear as owners or interested parties. As an example, in 1509 the manor was found to be in the possession of Sir David Owen, the natural son of Owen Tudor, and Sir John Legh, whom Anne, widow of Miles Harcourt, sued and lost for right of dower. In 1544 the manor was in the possession of John Cooke, after the death of Sir David Owen in 1542. During their ownership part of the property was sold or mortaged to Sir Thomas Pope. In 1565 the last Court Roll of Sir John Harcourt shows him as owner of both Lagham and Marden, joined together as they had been by the St Johns in 1223, with the main dwelling house at Lagham. Sir Simon Harcourt once more divided the manor and sold Marden to Thomas Powle, from whom it went to the Evelyns and then to the Claytons, and has remained a separate estate ever since. Lagham manor seems to have been regained by the Cookes by 1581 as it is conveyed to Richard Brokeman from whom it passed, in1585, to Nicholas Saunders. In 1605 some transactions were being carried out between Nicholas Saunders and William Gardiner who ultimately obtained possession in 1617. William Gardiner died in 1622 and Lagham passed to his son who conveyed the property to George and Richard Luxford in 1630. The Luxfords continued as owners until 1699 when William Luxford disposed of the manor. It would appear that John Cole and Edward Hussey then held the manor in trust until 1801 when it was conveyed to Samuel Farmer. Lagham never regained its former importance having passed through so many hands until the Tudor period when there is evidence of a more comfortable standard of living with finds of some fine Bellamines and shards of good quality pottery. This coincides with the time at which the Gardiner family were owners. They built the present house and increased the park to 650 acres, including five other properties. The drive from the house to the south-east corner is raised on a clay causeway, 3ft deep near the moat end and has three layers of metalling on the surface containing 17th and 18th century material and the last containing 19th century deposits. At the base of this clay structure was a pipe stem, showing that the south-east corner of the moat was not the main entrance in medieval days as had been thought. The roadway crosses 3ft above the foundations of the barn which itself would have effectively blocked any entrance from the south-east. It was at about this time that the small inner moat and island were constructed, or possibly embellished, in the west of the grounds. This was a landscaping and drainage project, the exit to the large moat being floored with chalk, probably covered and used as a boathouse. It was possible to fish in the moat until the middle of the 20th century. Representations of Lagham on the old maps of Surrey are very inaccurate but it does seem as though the main roadway came across the fields from the north, not where the present roadway connects the north causeway to the main road. The original entrance must have been by bridge or drawbridge, further round to the east of the present one, though perhaps only by a matter of a few yards. Because the banks have been demolished it is not possible to trace the original bridge. There seems no doubt that the ground that is occupied by the present house has, for a very long time, been used for the site of the dwellings of the lords of the manor. In pre-Tudor times such buildings were largely of wood and no remains are consequently available. There is, however, considerable evidence in the present building of material having been used in its construction that has been taken from an earlier building, probably of the early Tudor period. It seems certain that an older house stood on lower ground beneath the present one and that the floor of the existing cellars formed the ground floor in those days. The stones and mullioned windows of the foundations, some of the main timbers and the well date from before1622 when the present house was finished. There are four carved stone fireplaces dating from about 1580, but as none fit properly, they were probably imported from some other house that was being demolished around the 1620’s. One of these fireplaces, in the south bedroom, has the conventional rose and thistle of the Stuarts carved on it. There is much panelling throughout the house and again although fitted in the house from its date of construction some of the panels have clearly been re-used. The panelling surrounding the Tudor fireplace in the south bedroom bears the arms of the Leighs of Stockwell who owned the property in the first half of the 16th century, and there is a fine piece of Diamond panelling fitted at the top of the first floor staircase, lying on its side. The house as it stands now is of Jacobean design built of small Tudor bricks with stone copings and is roofed with old red tiles. It has been reputed that a possible donor for the previously used building material was that of the house of the manor of Hedgecourt. This is a feasible theory as the same family held both the manors of Lagham and Hedgecourt at the same time during the 13th to 15th centuries. In the early1750’s the house was enlarged by the addition of a kitchen wing. The staircase is also of about this date, but some of the oak panelling is older than 1600. Lagham was by now an unpretentious but comfortable country gentleman’s residence with landscaped gardens and deer park standing in about 487 acres, almost exactly the same extent as in 1349. The boundary of the old Deer Park can still be traced in many places, and the ditch and bank on which the park palings stood are still discernible and marked on the Ordnance Survey map. In 1801 the Farmers’ of Nonsuch purchased the property but it would appear they did not live there and let the estate to a series of tenant farmers. In 1850, during the tenancy of the Mills family, the south block was added together with the oasthouses, brewhouse and dairy, but by 1900 the place had been empty for some time and had deteriorated to a run-down farm with extensive farm buildings on the area now covered by the front lawn. These were then pulled down and the house and grounds put in order by Mr C S Stevens who lived there from 1909 until 1920 when Mr J T Chritchley succeeded him. In 1933 Mr J Blake Butler took over Lagham and made extensive studies of its history. In 1936 he compiled this into a small booklet called ‘Lagham Manor, South Godstone’. In 1944 the Lagham Estate was put up for auction which included of Lagham Manor with 11.696 acres, Lagham Park Farm, Old Hall Farm, Lagham Lodge Farm, Postern Gate Farm, Byewell House, and No.3 and No. 4 Park View Cottages. It seems that Mr J T Chritchley purchased Lagham Manor at this time, as in 1949 the Hon Mrs D C R MacNeile Dixon bought the property from him. It was during the ownership of Mrs MacNeile Dixon that the building was listed by National Heritage and the Bourne Society Archaeological Group was invited to excavate Lagham Manor and grounds, between 1973 to 1978. The findings show no post medieval finds of much wealth, though some of the pottery and china was reasonably good. Unfortunately, with the moat so close, much of the rubbish must have been thrown into the deep sludge and the total pottery and small finds is remarkably small and probably unrepresentative. The best find of the later period was a small gold propelling pencil such as issued with dance cards in more opulent days. The archaeological evidence bears out the history of the manor remarkably well. The sudden rise in the 13th century with its stone house and great moat to its equally sudden decline in the 14th century. The construction, out of previously used building material, on the site of an older house, of a comfortable residence, that is added to by each new owner to suit their life style, and still retaining its estate and deer park up to the middle of the 20th century. 
Other items relating to Lagham are available in the archive:
The mansion was built in the Italian style in brick and tile. On the floor of the mansion there was a floor tile with the inscription ‘William Barnes, July 1763’. This is believed to be the name of the builder and the date of erection. It is believed that this mansion either replaced or extended a previous house that was built by George Evelyn around 1690 which was called Heath Hatch. It has also been suggested that the mansion constructed in 1763 was faced with bricks during the ownership of the Gatty family in 1860 to provide work for the estate workers and was greatly modernised to accommodate the Victorian way of living. The mansion, standing in 1911 when the Estate was split up, was set on a slight eminence with commanding views of Hedgecourt Lake and the woodland beyond. The elevation gained further views from the parapet balustrading of the tiled roof of the loggia. Running along the length of the Southwest side and around the bay of the main façade was a loggia of enriched brick-work on stone columns. One entered via an entrance porch on the Northwest front that opened to a hall. This measured about 33ft. 6ins. long by 13ft., with an 11ft. pitch. There was an oak floor, fitted oak dado, a stove with tiled hearth and a fine 18th century oak galleried staircase. Leading from the hall was a dining room measuring 28ft. 6ins. by 19ft. This had an apartment conveniently planned for service from the offices. On the opposite side of the hall was the drawing room measuring about 27ft. by 23ft. 6ins. (including the bay). This had a carved marble mantel and curb, tiled hearth, opening by three large casement windows to the Loggia and Terrace. This room was considered to be expensively decorated with a painted ceiling, enriched cornices and panelled walls, with painted styling and guilded mouldings. Next to the drawing room was the library measuring about 20ft. 9ins. by 18ft. 6ins. This also had large casement windows to the Loggia and Terrace. Placed to the South flank of the house was a large conservatory measuring 34ft. by 18ft. with a tessellated floor and was approached from the Loggia. Notable features in the garden s that could be viewed from the conservatory were the fern clad rockery and two camellia beds. Still on the ground floor there was a gunroom well fitted with cupboards, a strong room, lavatory and the ground floor offices. The domestic offices were well shut off from the dwelling and included a spacious kitchen fitted with a range, servants hall, scullery, butler’s pantry fitted with cupboards and a sink, store room and a larder. In the basement there were extensive wine and beer cellars. Jutting out at a right angle from the offices, and forming one side of a walled fruit garden, was an assortment of outbuildings. These included a brew and bake house, wash house with a copper, pump house with a good well, a coal house and wood shed, gas or furnace house, acetylene gas house for lighting, and a coke house with stoke hole. Other outbuildings included a substantial brick-built stable block, mounted with a clock in a turret and comprised of six loose boxes and a coach-house for four or five coaches with a loft above. There was also accommodation for a coachman which comprised of two bedrooms with a stove and mantel, a living room with a range, and a scullery with a glazed sink. There was also a groom’s mess room and detached harness room. These lay screened behind the mansion and conservatory, and had a direct and separate access to the main road. Returning to the mansion, the first floor was approached by the galleried staircase and a secondary staircase that led to a fine balustrade landing. Here there were seven best bedrooms, measuring respectively about 21ft. by 17ft. 6ins., 19ft. by 15ft. 6ins., 21ft. by 17ft. 6ins., 19ft. by 15ft. 6ins., 15ft. by 14ft. 6ins. and 21ft. by 9ft. 6ins. One of the bedrooms had a separate WC fitted in a recess. There were also two dressing rooms and a bathroom. On the second floor there were nine secondary and servants’ bedrooms, and a housemaid’s sink. One of the rooms was fitted as a linen room, and many of the bedrooms had fitted wardrobe cupboards. The landings were spacious and well lit, and from the principal bedrooms there were beautiful views over the Parkland and beyond, especially from the rooms on the Southwest side which opened out on to a balcony running along the top of the Loggia. The gardens included a productive walled kitchen garden, well stocked with fruit trees. There was a heated peach and nectarine house about 60 ft. long, two vineries and a forcing house. There were also three ranges of cold pits and a heated greenhouse in a small orchard. The pleasure grounds extended from a broad terrace with lawns and flower gardens to some six acres of rhododendrons, shrubs and old yew hedges, and species trees, including a fine old cedar tree and sequoia. Within the grounds was a rustic summerhouse, tennis courts, woodland walks and the Evelyn monument from 1786. The two principal entrances were guarded by a lodge, North Lodge on the main London Road, and South Lodge on the Copthorne Road. Both lodges were constructed of stone with tiled roof and accommodation consisted of six rooms apiece. Felbridge Place Chronology 1588 – George Evelyn of Nutfield bought 70 acres of Felbridge, 30 acres adjoining Felbridge Water and 40 acres being the fields of Star Barn. The area then was little more than heathland and quite marshy. 1692 – George Evelyn, great grandson of the first George, settled these 70 acres and a newly built house called Heath Hatch on his youngest son William. 1719 – William Evelyn sold the house and land to his brother Edward, who also purchased Hedgecourt manor and a house called Park Corner, therefore creating the beginning of the Felbridge Place Estate. 1748 – Edward Evelyn had produced a map of his Estate which outlined the extent of his Estate, 1536 acres 2roods and 34 perches. 1751 – Edward Evelyn died and the Estate passed to James his second son, the first already having died. 1763 – James Evelyn had Felbridge Place built. 1793 – James Evelyn died and the Estate passed to Julia Annabella, his eldest daughter. 1797 – Julia Annabella died. It is not known whether her husband Sir George Augustus William Shuckburgh (Medley) Evelyn resided here or at his family seat of Buxted Park, it was most probably the latter. It is known that a decision to lease Felbridge Place was made some time between 1793 and 1801. 1801 – John Nicholls Esq. was listed as the tenant of Felbridge House and Park, date at which tenancy started unknown at present. 1803 – John Nicholls Esq. was still the tenant at Felbridge Place. 1804 – Sir George Shuckburgh (Medley) Evelyn died and the Felbridge Estate passed to his daughter Julia Evelyn Medley, who was married to Hon. Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool. The Estate continued to be leased. 1826 – Charles Jevon Esq.’s lease expired. The date at which this commenced is unclear at present. 1826 – George Raikes Esq. took out a 21 year lease on Felbridge Place. George Raikes was of Fulham, Middlesex and the lease commenced on 29th September at the cost of £150.00, plus £50.00 an acre cut and mown twice a year or turned to tillage. The lease covered Felbridge Place with paddock and lawn, the lay or pasture fields, Bon Cheals Wood and Rookery Wood, all forming in the tenure previously held by Charles Jevon. 1841 – Maria Raikes was listed in the census as the head of household and was classed as independent, presumably her husband George Raikes had died, date unknown at present. 1851 – Thomas P Hutton was listed at Felbridge Park, he was listed as a Perp – curate of Lingfield, Surrey. 1851 – Felbridge Place was left in trust to Lady Selina Charlotte Jenkinson, Vicountess Milton after the death of her father. The Estate was probably left in trust because she had married Mr George Savile Foljambe in 1845 after the death of her first husband Viscount William Charles Milton in 1835. By keeping the Estate in trust it would pass to the heir of her first marriage. 1856 – The Trust conveyed Felbridge Place Estate to George Gatty Esq. on 20th March. It would appear that he might well have been tenanting the mansion before this time as in the indenture he was listed of Felbridge Place. The Estate included some1740 acres 0 roods and 14 perches. 1864 – George Gatty died and Felbridge Place passed to his wife Frances and son Charles Henry Gatty. 1876 – Frances Gatty died and the Estate passed to Charles Henry Gatty. 1903 – Charles Henry Gatty died and the Estate was left in trust to Alfred Leighton Sayer Esq. and Charles Lane Sayer, relations to the Gatty family on Frances Gatty’s side. The Estate then began eight years of being leased. 1911- The Earl of Egremont vacated the property, last known occupier of Felbridge Place before it was sold by the Sayers. 1911 – The Sayers conveyed Felbridge Place Estate to Mrs Emma Harvey, wife of Percy Portway Harvey of Bright Holme, Ronald Park Avenue, Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex and the East Grinstead Estate Company Ltd. of 46 Victoria Street, London, for £57,595.13.6 in February. Their purchase included the mansion house and park, buildings and land known as Felbridge Place, and all the messuages (cottages), farms, and land situated in the Parishes of Godstone, Horne and Tandridge, in Surrey, and in the Parishes of Worth and East Grinstead, in Sussex, containing an estimated 2116 acres 0 roods and 22 perches. 1911 – The East Grinstead Estate Company Ltd. put approximately 1,350 acres of the Felbridge Place Estate up for auction on 25th May. Some of the Estate was sold off, but it would appear that Felbridge Place, the house was either unsold or left empty, leased out or that the Harvey’s may have moved in until it was sold. 1913 – Arthur Smeeton Gurney of Luxfords, East Grinstead borrowed £10,000.00 from the East Grinstead Estate Co. Ltd to purchase the mansion and park, aswell as a plantation and Smithfield Farm. 1916- The East Grinstead Estate Company Ltd. put up for auction, ‘Cuttinglye and its Environs’. This included, Cuttinglye Estate, the remainder of Smithfield Farm, Home Farm, Harts Hall site, Coopers Moors, Thorny Park sites, Pond-Tail sites, Summerlands Estate, Mill Wood and Bakers Wood, an area amounting to approximately 785 acres. 1916 – Henry Willis Rudd of 27 Pall Mall, London, purchased Felbridge Place which included, the mansion, park, garden, Hedgecourt Lake and other pieces of land amounting to 218 acres 3 roods and 1 perch for £11,750.00. The estate was remortgaged later with the East Grinstead Estate Co. Ltd., which was paid back, and then remortgaged with Barclays Bank. 1924 – Barclays Bank, holding for the Rudd’s, sold the tennis court to Percy Portway Harvey, alias the East Grinstead Estate Co. Ltd. 1924 – Henry Rudd put up for auction New Chapel House and Felbridge Place Estates, which included New Chapel House, (now the Mormon Temple complex), Golands, (now Stradfords), Felbridge Place, Park Farm, (including the Bailiff’s house, now Park Farm, the old home farm, now Park House and the outbuildings), racing stables with bungalow, Hedgecourt Lake, woodland and other land suitable for building plots totalling 770 acres. It is not known who purchased Felbridge Place but the Pear’s soap family purchased New Chapel House and grounds. 1926 – By order of the Mortgagees 110 acres of Felbridge Place Estate was put up for auction as building plots along the main Eastbourne Road and Copthorne Road. 1928 – Henry Rudd sold part of the parkland to Samuel Cadley, on which was built Exton Court, later to become Arkendale. 1932 – George William Newling Ward was listed as owning part of the Felbridge Place Estate, as he had turned the mansion house into a hotel which was known as Felbridge Place Hotel in 1932. 1949 – Mr Cartwright took over the Felbridge Place Hotel and changed its name to the White Duchess. (Date approximate). 1951 – Col. Ponsonby took over the hotel. He ran Felbridge Place as a hotel for a couple of years before selling up, auctioning some of the contents of the hotel. 1955 – The Hotel had closed by the summer. 1957 – Mr Roff had Felbridge Place converted into small apartments by dividing up the rooms into smaller units. Whilst the alterations were taking place timber framing was discovered behind some of the Victorian interior, possibly some of the original Heath Hatch building that is known to have stood near or on the site before Felbridge Place was built in 1763. 1964 - It would appear that the house stood empty for a couple of years and gradually deteriorated. 1966 – The Mercers Company purchased Felbridge Place to move Whittington College to.  1972 – The Mercers Company demolished Felbridge Place house, retaining the old stable block and some of the outbuildings. The first floor of the stable block was converted into two staff flats. Hedgecourt Water Mill Hedgecourt water mill stood beside Hedgecourt Lake, the second of a series of three lakes that served the iron industry in the Felbridge area from the 16th century to the end of the 18th century. The lake is some sixty acres and was formed by building a bay or dam to flood the valley in the 1570’s, at the time that Jack Dancey built the original mill. At this time there is reference to ‘Thorpe’s iron-mill at Heldecourt’, which may refer to the use of the mill, especially as Thorpe ran both The Warren Furnace and Woodcock Hammer for the Gage family. The mill may have been an iron mill, however, there is nothing conclusive from the evidence available to prove the early use of the mill. What is known is that the building that stood until 1949/50, when it was demolished, was designed for corn milling and was mentioned as a corn mill in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and marked on Stent’s map of 1680. There was evidence that the foundations were of an earlier period than the mid to late 17th century building and may have been the original mill built by Dancey. J. Hillier gives a good description of the mill in ‘Old Surrey Water Mills’ written in 1948 just prior to its demolition. Like most mills of the 17th century, the base, up to the first floor, was of brick, the upper storeys weather-boarded on a timber frame. The millwright’s work was of an early date and could possibly be the original, set up in the corn mill. It was a two-pair overshot mill, the wheel being made of oak and metal, and like the gearing, contemporary with the building itself. The axle was of wood, the eight compass-arms of the wheel were cast iron. The shields were of wood, with grooves on the inner sides to take the ends of the metal ‘split’ wheel with short oak cogs. The waller, (a small cogged wheel), and crown both had hexagonal collars for clasping the central shaft. The driving wheel, which engaged the two driving cogs of the millstones, was eight feet across. The framework that carried the machinery was massive and roughly shaped trees had been used in places, and the watershaft was made of oak. The only remnants left, in 1999, are the axle, the eight cast-iron compass-arms of the wheel; the metal split wheel and some of the brickwork, including the millrace and a small section of the base of the mill where the axle passes through. Hedgecourt Windmill The Windmill stood on the South bank of Hedgecourt Lake. It was built some time after an indenture had been drawn up on 30th October 1739, between Sir William Clayton of Marden, Lord of the Manor of Bletchingley, and James Marchant, a miller of Horne. In the indenture, James Marchant leases, for sixty years, six acres of Hedgecourt Heath for building a windmill on, at a yearly rent of 40 shillings. The windmill is clearly drawn on the Bourd map of 1748 and would appear to be a post mill, which was common in the mid 18th century. One of a similar design can still be seen at Outwood in Surrey. It is not known how long the windmill was in operation, but it does not appear on the Rocque map of 1762, although in 1783 John Simmons took over the original indenture. Unfortunately it does not say whether it was just the six acres of land or whether it included the windmill. If the windmill was still there at that time, it would appear that it had gone by 1789, as a map by Joseph Lindley does not show it, although other windmills in the area are clearly defined. Post mills were built in Britain for over 600 years. The body of a post mill that carried the sails and the machinery, was mounted on an upright main post, usually oak, about 20 feet long, on which it could turn 360° so that it could always be made to face the wind. The design changed little over the 600 years, except that the early windshafts (upon which the sails are mounted) passed horizontally into the top of the mill and carried the brake wheel. This turned a wallower on a vertical shaft that went straight down to drive a pair of millstones. It was soon realised that that the horizontal windshaft wore its wooden bearings very quickly with disastrous consequences, so they were angled upwards 5° to 15° thus preventing damage to the mill. At the back of the mill was a wide stepladder with handrails that gave access to the door. The ladder was hinged at the top so that it could be lifted clear of the ground when the mill was turned or winded. The mill then rested on a wooden support or trestle. To turn the mill you had to lean on the tailpole and push until the body of the mill faced the wind. Post mills were faced with weatherboarding, and this was then projected over the trestle to keep some of the weather out. They were painted white or tarred black. From the drawing on the Bourd map it can be seen that the windmill at Hedgecourt was an open post mill, in that the trestle was left open and not enclosed as some were at a later date to give protected dry storage space. Hedgecourt Mill Cottages and Sluice Gate The old Mill Cottages stand on the East side of Mill Lane, next to the sluice gate. To the other side of the cottages stood the stable block that served the tenant of the Water Mill, and who undoubtedly lived in one of the Mill Cottages. The original part of the cottages was built in the 17th century being partly tile hung and red brick, this was then added to on three occasions during the 18th century. The tenant of the ‘demense’ (property) undertook in the reign of Elizabeth I, to bring in 6 tons of clay or cinder annually to maintain the bay or dam. They also undertook to operate the sluice gates that maintained the flow of water to Wood Cock Hammer Forge under the direction of the operator of the Forge. Even at the sale of the Felbridge Estate in 1911, the owner of what was then known as Wire Mill had the controlling rights over the water in Hedgecourt Lake. A member of the Streeter family, which had originally moved there in 1906, lived in one of the cottages up until the early 1960’s. They then stood empty until the 1980’s when they had become quite dilapidated. They then underwent refurbishment and were converted into two houses. They are now grade II listed properties. Hedgecourt Mill Stables Little is known about the Hedgecourt stables other than they served the tenant of the Water Mill. On the 1748 Bourd map of the Evelyn Estate a barn stands in the location of the stables, although that may have been used for stabling as there would have been a need to stable the horses of the carters and carriers who brought grain to be milled. It is documented in the accounts of Knight’s Carriers that they transported oats to be milled for James Evelyn to the mill. In 1856 when George Gatty bought the Evelyn Estate there was still a building on the location but still no evidence as to what the building was. At this time the miller at Hedgecourt Water Mill was John Saunders, who also lists himself as a farmer farming approximately 45 acres. However, by 1911 when the Estate was broken up, a stable block had been erected on or near the site of the barn. From the shape of the stables it would appear to have incorporated the barn.  The stables were still standing in 1936 although not in a good state of repair and by the 1940’s were buried in bushes. There are three vital commodities needed for a successful blast furnace, iron ore, wood and water, and Warren furnace operated because all three commodities were in the area. Iron ore was local and the ore for Warren furnace was quarried adjacent to the furnace. There is evidence of ore extraction pits in the Sharpthorne area dating from the Middle Ages. Wood was used to produce charcoal as fuel for the furnace. A coppice system was operated whereby small trees such as hazel were cut, in a fifteen year cycle, to produce small branches to turn into charcoal and create a coppiced woodland, allowing larger trees such as oak to grow on and be used for ship building. Among the sources of wood for Warren furnace were Cuttinglye Woods and Myllwood. To keep a furnace ‘in blast’ it has been estimated that about 2500 acres of coppiced woodland would be needed, with a further 1500 acres to run a forge, in this case Woodcock Hammer. The third commodity needed was water and this was in plentiful supply after a bay or dam was built straddling Felbridge Water, creating a six acre pond. Water was required as power to operate the 4.5 metre bellows, made of oak and ox hide, that blew air into the furnace to raise the temperature, or as power for boring out guns, or, as in the case of the Woodcock Hammer forge, to power the bellows and the hammer. The period of continuous work for a blast furnace was dependent on water, and usually lasted from October to June, as the water level drops in the summer months so too does the power supply. The area known as Furnace Wood was once known as Myllwood. It was mentioned in a lease of 1485, suggesting that a mill had been in use on the Felbridge Water, however, it is unclear whether the mill referred to was connected with the iron industry or whether it was a corn mill. The name Myllwood continued to be used well into the 18th century but by then Warren furnace was in operation and the area was also referred to as The Warren. There is evidence that a corn mill stood on the site of Warren furnace in 1780 and ran until the 1860’s. This appears on the Tithe map of 1841/2 and in the Land Tax Records. It was around 1865 that the bay, of 80 metres which held a depth of water of 5 metres, collapsed. An attempt was made to repair it at the time which was unsuccessful and so the pond drained away leaving just marshy land and no water to run the mill. It was not until the 1920’s that the bay was successfully repaired and the lake re-installed by the then owner, Mr. Lionel Robinson, of Furnace Lodge. Some of the work was carried out by prisoners of war that were camped in Cuttinglye Wood. The level of the pond today is much lower than when the mill was in use. Warren furnace was in operation from 1567, when Sir Edward Gage, Lord of the manor of Hedgecourt, granted a twenty-one year lease to John Fawkner of Waldron who ran Maresfield forge and John French of Chiddingly who was in charge of the Stream furnace. Both operated ironworks owned by Sir Edward Gage.The lease states that the furnace had been erected before the drawing up of the lease. With the furnace set up it was John Thorpe, who had leased the manor of Hedgecourt, who ran the furnace. Thorpe’s lease of the manor specifically excluded the furnace, but a further lease, now missing, must have granted him the use of the furnace in succession to Fawkne and French. Thorpe’s occupation of both the manor and the furnace gave him rights over most of the land around the furnace, including Myllwood, (Furnace Wood), and Coddinglighe, (Cuttingly). Contemporary to the building of the furnace, were several small cottages on Hedgecourt Common. Felcot and Forge Farms, now known as Felcot Farm, Yew Tree Farm and Michaelmas Farm, formerly known as Miles Farm, all probably date from the first working period of the furnace. These may have been built to house furnace workers. Each had a small plot of land on which they could eke out a living when the furnace was not ‘in blast’, the term used for continuous operation. The blast furnace, of which Warren furnace was a 16th century example, was about 20 feet in height. It was fed at the open top with iron ore and charcoal, where the combustion was intensified by a blast of air blowing through the hot mixture, and from which, at the bottom, fluid metal was tapped. The fluid metal from the blast furnace was run into sand moulding beds in the floor of a cast house in front of the furnace to produce cast iron ‘sows’. These were about 2.5 to 3 metres long and weighed about ½ ton each. These then had to be refined as cast iron was hard and brittle, so it was re-worked in a conversion forge where it was decarbonised by re-melting and hammering to produce a ‘loup’ of iron, this was then consolidated and formed into a ‘bloom’ which was then re-heated and hammered several times first producing an ‘ancony’ and then a ‘bar’ of malleable iron for the blacksmith. There were, therefore, two separate processes, the furnace and the forge, generally in two separate locations in this instance,Warren furnace and Woodcock Hammer. In 1574 John Thorpe, who also worked Woodcock Hammer, was warned against selling ordnance to continental buyers, of whom Spain was pre-eminent. Thorpe entered into a bond of £2000 not to export guns. In 1588, with the threat of the Armada passed, the iron masters were requested to stop casting guns. This coincided with the expiry of the first known lease, but it is not known whether the furnace continued in operation after 1588 or not, although it is most likely that the lease would have been renewed lengthening production, possibly until 1609. Although the continuance of the furnace is in doubt from 1588 onwards, with the purchase of Giveshiven, (Gibbshaven), by the Thorpe family in 1582, it would seem to indicate that blasting was kept up after the turn of the 17th century. Gibbshaven is a late 15th century house with many additions dating from the time of ownership by the Thorpe family. There is no evidence that John Thorpe ever lived at Gibbshaven and it is most probable that he lived at Hedgecourt and that his son Richard lived at Gibbshaven. Richard Thorpe continued at Woodcock Hammer until 1654 and it is reasonable to assume that he needed Warren furnace to supply cast iron sows, as Woodcock Hammer would have been a wholesale outlet for blacksmiths and the ironmongers of London. It is possible that Warren furnace continued until the 1650’s, but it had certainly gone by 1653, as it does not appear in the iron survey carried out then or again in 1664. In 1748 the manor of Hedgecourt and land in this area belonging to the Gage family was purchased by Edward Evelyn, and a map was commissioned of the newly acquired land. This map does not show a furnace in Myllwood but the bay can be clearly seen. It was not until 1758 that the furnace, by then named Warren furnace started up again under Edward Raby in partnership with his brother-in-law, Alexander Master. It was about this time that the Furnace Cottages, now ‘Furnace’, were built to house a new generation of furnace workers. again, being seasonal work, the furnace workers would have eked out a living in the summer months from the small plot of land that went with the cottages. The cottages were of a light oak framed construction and show evidence of re-used timber. Several closes of cottages were leased by Sir Kenrick Clayton to Alexander Master at the edge of Hedgecourt Common, and are shown on a map of Sir Kenrick’s lands dated 1761, implying that they were built between the re-opening of Warren furnace in 1758 and 1761. The re-opening of Warren furnace coincides with the last phase of the iron industry in the Weald. The Weald had traditionally supplied the London area but with the importation of Swedish iron, many of the Weald’s markets had been lost. So by the mid-18th century the iron industry of the Weald was much reduced while the industry in South Wales, Shropshire and the west Midlands, away from the intrusion of Swedish iron, was flourishing. Here coal was beginning to replace charcoal in the production of iron and these areas were rich in coal therefore cutting production costs. From what had been a thriving industry of 50 furnaces and 50 forges at its peak in the Weald, only a dozen or so furnaces survived. Most of these were situated near rivers for cheapest transportation costs.However, because of its distance from a navigable waterway, the products of the Warren furnacehad to be taken to London by road. The few remaining furnaces of the Weald concentrated on casting. This was helped by the coincidence of a number of wars and the growth in England’s maritime interests, and shipping needed to be armed, as well as the trading posts that were set up. The re-opening of the Warren furnace coincides with the Seven Year War of 1756 to 1763. Edward Raby and Alexander Master were both in the iron mongery business based in London and had considerable money to invest in the re-building of Warren furnace. Shortly after re-opening they won a contract from the Board of Ordnance to supply 400 tons of ordnance a year. This was achieved by casting guns at Warren furnace and importing shot from Bristol. Raby appears to have run the furnace side of the business and Master the ironmongery side based in London. The production of guns by Raby and Master peaked in about 1761 when the main Wealden iron producers, Harrison & Co., were in decline. Unfortunately, Raby and Master went bankrupt in 1764, although there is evidence that it was the iron mongery side of the business that was at fault. Within 18 months Raby was back up and running at Warren furnace and by now he had bought out the smaller furnace at Gravetye which had been run by William Clutton. Raby was later partnered by a Mr Rogers at Warren furnace, and they did a great deal of business with the Board of Ordnance, supplying cannon and mortars for the army and navy. They did a similar amount of business with the East India Company and with a few foreign governments. Over the space of fifteen years Raby did over £40,000 worth of trade, a substantial sum for the period. Between 1762 and 1769 Robert Knight, a carrier of East Grinstead, did a considerable amount of business carting guns to Woolwich and returning with coal which was probably used for drying gun moulds. There are no complete surviving blast furnaces in Sussex, so it is difficult to say for certain what Warren furnace would have looked like. A drawing of Beech furnace, near Battle, on a 1724 map of the Battle Abbey estate,in East Sussex Record Office, gives us a good idea. There are also few surviving records about Warren furnace so piecing together its history is difficult. What is known is the site was arranged in a pattern common to most post-medieval water-powered furnaces, a valley embayed or dammed at its narrowest point with water courses on both sides of the site. The probable site of the furnace is at the east end of the bay where there is a prominent depression, which may be the remains of the wheel pit, close to a brick-arched culvert at the base of the bay, but subsequent rebuilding has covered the original arrangement of buildings. When Warren furnace was casting guns it would have had a casting vault; a shaft with a table at the bottom that could be adjusted for the length of barrel required. This shaft would then be packed with earth to keep the mould stable during the casting process. There is also evidence of a boring mill at the site and it is documented by Robert Knight that guns were brought from Gravetye furnace, ‘with their heads on’, to be bored at Warren furnace. The boring mill was used to ream or shape the interior of a cannon cast hollow. Indications are that in the 18th century Warren furnace was carrying out this process as it was not unusual for various races to have culverts beneath a working site, and the remains of possible access manholes have been found at Warren furnace. The boring mill consisted of a carriage or trolley to which the cannon was securely fixed with chains or ropes, and which was pulled up to a revolving bar fitted into a water wheel. The trolley was set low for ease of loading and the windlass was raised to about waist height to facilitate handling. A building would probably have been found on site in use as a shelter for the lengthy job of sawing the heads of cannon. Boring bars were required in different lengths and diameters and would also have been stored on site. In 1770 Raby diversified his business by undertaking the casting of bronze ordnance. An example of one of Raby’s bronze pieces is on display in the Army museum in Madrid. The bronze mortar there has a 22-cm calibre, 51-cm bore, approximately 70 cm long and has the reference number 3660. It has an open pan touch-hole, above which reads ‘RABY & CO FECIT 1771’. There is also a raised crown and the initials ‘3. G. R.’ on the barrel. The Spanish captured the mortar in the town of Tetuan, (Morocco), during the North African War, circa 1859/60. There are also examples or cast iron guns made by Raby in Barbados and at Woolwich, the latter, a 12 pounder, is a rare example with a pair of lifting rings, known as ‘dolphins’, on the barrel. Raby is the only known gun founder to have the expertise to cast lifting rings in iron. He also had the ability to cast shells that were made as a hollow sphere, another highly skilled job. The bronze, used to make the mortars, would be carted down from Woolwich for use at the furnace and would have consisted of old broken or scrap guns as there is no evidence that they made bronze on site. Edward Raby died in 1771 and the business passed to his son Alexander, who continued to run both Warren furnace and Woodcock Hammer. A legal wrangle ensued during the early 1770’s between Raby and the Government who maintained that Raby had made a consignment of their guns too big and therefore wanted compensation for the use of excess bronze. Raby finally settled out of court and gave up the business in 1774. It was taken over by Joseph Wright and Thomas Prickett who also ran the North Park furnace at Fernhurst, but they ceased working Warren furnace in about 1776. By 1787 the entire iron works, which must have been considerable, were derelict, although the corn mill probably continued working until the bay collapsed in about 1865. The Woodcock Hammer stopped for a while and then continued as a wire mill, finally operating as a corn mill until the beginning of the 20th century when it finally ceased.  Based on notes taken from a talk by J Hodgkinson, supplemented with articles by him taken from Wealden Iron Bulletin, Second series No. 12, 1992 and No. 17, 1997.  |
