Oasthouse at Bullfinches Farm

Details

ROTHERFIELD

995/0/10103 ERIDGE GREEN 08-MAR-06 Oasthouse at Bullfinches Farm

II Former oasthouse, previously cartshed with storage and later cattlesheds. Mid C19 stowage with late C19 cattleshed to north and hopkiln of c.1910. MATERIALS: Built of brick, apart from timberframed upper floor of south west front of stowage which is clad in weatherboarding, with tiled roof and wooden cowl and fantail to hop kiln. PLAN: Three bay rectangular stowage building with a lean-to former cattleshed to the north and circular hop kiln to the south. EXTERIOR: The stowage rear north eastern wall is of brick laid mainly in Flemish garden wall bond rising from a plinth of two or three courses of stone rubble with bricks salvaged from an earlier building on the site. In the lower courses an earlier opening in the stonework, probably for draught, is now blocked. This elevation retains the shadow of a demolished lean-to cattle shed. The side walls are also in Flemish bond brickwork. The south west elevation has an upper floor of stud framing, weatherboarded externally with one early C20 casement, a fixed casement and a cart door. The formerly open ground floor has been underbuilt in later C20 brickwork in stretcher bond with two C20 casements and wooden double doors which are ledged and braced and hung on strap hinges. Tiled roof. Brick lean-to attached to the north. Attached to the south west is a circular brick hop kiln in Flemish garden wall bond with dogtooth cornice, tiled roof and wooden cowl with fantail. INTERIOR: The ground floor of the stowage has C20 brick piers and a circular aperture in the ceiling. There is a fixed wooden staircase and the opening to the kiln was blocked. The upper floor has a roof structure of single clasped purlins and collar construction and the rafters have a ridgepiece. Two walls retain the stencilled annual numbers of hop pockets processed between the years 1927 and 2000. The double doors to the kiln survive and the kiln retains the wooden drying racks. HISTORY:This oasthouse is in the position of an earlier building shown on a Tithe Map of 1842 and the rear wall may have been built on stone footings retained from this building. After 1842 the structure which is now the stowage appears to have been an open fronted cart shed with a storage lift above for crop or grain storage. By the date of the 1897 map two lean-tos had been added, formerly used as cowsheds and the footprint of the building had not altered by the time of the 1908 map. The circular kiln is thought to have been added c.1910. At a later date the rear cattleshed was demolished. The building appears to have ceased being an oasthouse in 2000, which is the last date of the annual number of hop pockets recorded on the internal upper walls of the stowage. SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The Oasthouse at Bullfinches Farm is interesting as a multifunctional building which demonstrates the development of local agriculture in the C19 and C20. It started as a mid-C19 cartshed with storage above with later lean-to cattlesheds, showing the change from the slump in the corn market to cattle rearing and finally its adaptation into an oasthouse circa 1910. It is also a comparatively rare example of an oasthouse in Sussex, and a now rare example of an unconverted oasthouse.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

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494902

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LBS

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