Details
BRIGHTON
TQ3602NE THE GREEN, Rottingdean
577-1/60/1050 13/10/52 Challoners and Little Challoners
(Formerly Listed as:
FALMER ROAD, Rottingdean
Challoners and Little
Challoners)
II
Detached house with dairy, now 2 houses.
MATERIALS: Challoners is of flint, with dressings of red and yellow brick and stone quoins, which are partly replaced by brick at the top of the south-east corner. The western and return wing to the north are rendered. The roof is of Horsham slab to the main building and tiles to the single-storey western extension. Little Challoners is of flint with brick quoins and dressings and a half-hipped tile roof.
PLAN: Challoners, was originally a C15 two-storey, four-room house, now a two-storey five-bay house with extensions to the North East, North Wwest and West; the last connecting it to Little Challoners. Little Challoners, situated to the north (rear) of Challoners but linked by the western wing, is a two-storey, two bay cottage.
CHALLONERS EXTERIOR: The cellars are said to date from the C15, with internal timbers possibly dating from C16 alterations, and all with a c.1805 front. The dairy extension was added in the C18, along with a wing to the rear. The end chimney-stack to the east has been rebuilt, but the multiple stack towards the west end looks C18. The flat-arched entrance, in a canted porch, is said to date from c.1805; there is a subsidiary entrance in the second bay towards the west end of the main block. The windows to each bay are segmentalarched, including the one over the subsidiary entrance. There is a glazed polygonal conservatory over the porch with dentil cornice referred to as the 'Trafalgar' window. Dale (1951) describes it as 'perhaps its [the house's] chief feature' with 'diamond shaped glass', which has now been replaced, by single sash windows with glazing bars.
LITTLE CHALLONERS EXTERIOR: Dated 1804 between the first floor windows, there is an end chimney-stack to the north end. Its principal entrance is in the southern extension. The former entrance in the centre of the façade is now a window. All windows are flat-arched casements.
INTERIORS: The interiors of these houses were not inspected but Challoners is known to contain a number of reused beams.
HISTORY
Challoners was a medieval yeoman's cottage, which evolved into a manor house as the owners became more prosperous, acquired more land and extended the house in almost every century to date. The farming estate, which was managed from Challoners, employed most of the population of Rottingdean until the 1920s.
The house derives its name from the C15 Sussex Challoner family. John and Alice Osbarn of London first conveyed land in Rottingdean and Balsdean (2km to the North East) to Thomas Challoner in 1456. In 1541, Thomas' grandson, William Challoner conveyed the manor to Hugh Ockenden and it remained in the Oakenden family until 1614; Challoners is thought to date from 1591. By 1616, Richard Srase held the house with its land and outbuildings and 8 vigrates of land (a vigrate being a quarter of the notionally amount of land which would support a household). In 1689, John and Jane Head along with Thomas and Cicely Beard conveyed it to Edward Head and Richard Beard. Richard Beard was listed as the owner of Challoners when he died in 1713. James 'Brasser' Cooper (1845-1924), a former member of the 'Copper family' singers, was the farm bailiff or general manager in the late C19 and early C20. The farm was sold in c.1938 and in 1956 the house was divided into three (Challoners, Little Challoners and West Challoners) . The houses were brought into single ownership in 2007, and are retained as two separate properties, Challoners and Little Challoners, although Little Challoners could be incorporated into the main house by opening a door in the shared inner wall.
SOURCES
Victoria County History: Sussex Vol. VII pp235-236.
Dale, Antony, 1951. About Brighton - a Guide to the Buildings and Byways of Brighton and Hove pp66-67
The Cooper Family Website. www.thecooperfamily.com accessed 4 December 2009
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
Challoners and Little Challoners are designated for the following principal reasons:
* a C15 house, which retains a significant proportion of early fabric cottage built in the local vernacular tradition that has strong group value with the earlier house.
Listing NGR: TQ3691102753
