Reasons for Designation
Cattsford and its associated privy are recommended for designation at Grade II for the following principal reasons.
* Cattsford is a former farmhouse of circa 1775, on a site documented since the early C17, which retains its plan form of a two-bay end chimneystack house with part catslide outshot;
* The exterior of brick in Flemish and English garden wall bond and tile-hanging is substantially intact;
* The interior retains a number of original features including two open fireplaces, bread oven, exposed ceiling beams, partition walls, winder staircase and plank doors;
* An additional point of interest is a reused C15 dais beam;
* The associated free-standing privy is a rare surviving example of a late-C18 privy, even rarer because it is a three-seater.
Details
BENENDEN
1350/0/10004 DINGLEDEN LANE
15-FEB-08 CATTSFORD AND ASSOCIATED PRIVY
II
Former farmhouse, now house, and three seater privy, both of circa 1775. Late-C19 porch and C20 windows to south-west front of house.
MATERIALS: The house has a ground floor of red brick with tile-hanging above. The south-west front is of Flemish bond with some vitrified headers but the other sides are in English garden wall bond. Tiled roof, the front range gabled but the rear range part hipped and part catslide, with three brick chimneystacks, two external. The privy is timberframed, clad in weatherboarding with hipped tiled roof.
PLAN: The house is two-bay end chimneystack house with a catslide roof to the north-eastern half of the rear elevation, the front range is of two storeys with attics in the gable end. The privy, approximately 1.5m to the north-west is a small square single-storey structure.
EXTERIOR: The south-west side of Cattsford, facing Dingleden Lane, has two windows to each floor, now tripartite C20 casements, and there is a later C19 gabled wooden porch with side windows and bargeboard with moulded pendant. Behind the porch is an earlier four-panelled door in a moulded wooden architrave. The south-east elevation has a large external brick chimneystack. There is a small attic window in the gable end, two C19 casements to the first floor and the ground floor has a C19 multipane tripartite casement and a wide door. The north-west elevation has C19 casement windows and a wide doorcase in the catslide with plank door. The north-east or rear elevation has a hipped roof to the left hand side with no windows and the remainder has a catslide roof, also without windows, and a lean-to privy.
The free-standing privy has a ledged door of three planks to the south-west side. The south-east side has wider oak planks with old nails. The north-west side has a small wooden louvred opening. The north-east side has a hinged flap at the base to access the buckets and behind is the original pit, about 1.2m square and brick lined.
INTERIOR: The southern front ground floor room or sitting room to Cattsford has a 3m wide open fireplace with wooden bressumer retaining the hole for the spit bracket and two fielded panelled cupboards to the eastern side. This room has an axial beam of C18 or C19 date. The northern front ground floor room was not inspected. The south rear room or kitchen has a smaller open fireplace, about 1.7m wide with wooden bressumer and brick piers, the ceiling has exposed floor joists and there is a plank door. The northern wall has a brick bread oven. The adjoining room to the north has a reused C15 dais beam over an C18 partition wall with diagonal braces and under an C18 ceiling with beams of thin timber scantling. There is an C18 winder staircase approached through a plank door. The first floor rear south bedroom was originally ceiled over but the ceiling has been removed to reveal exposed rafters with a ridgepiece and kingpost with dragon ties to the corners. There are two plank doors and some wide floorboards. The front bedrooms have no exposed beams. There is a very steep wooden ladder stairs to the attics.
The interior of the privy retains a wooden seat with two hinged flaps accessing two latrines with circular wooden holes. Adjoining is a lower latrine for children. The pencil graffiti on the walls is probably early C20.
HISTORY: Records for a property called Kersford go back to 1643. A partition between heirs in gavelkind of 27th September 1643 refers to a "messuage called Kersford, barn, oasthouse, stable, buildings, garden and 12 pieces of land." A copy of a will of Matthew Robbins of 1668 grants to his nephew "the rents of all his lands in Benenden and Rolvenden, being a messuage caleed Kirsford" A quitclaim for a legacy of £50 of 31st December 1674 refers to a legacy "charged on land called Kirsford in Benenden and Rolvended." A marriage settlement of 11th and 12th August 1770 refers to a "messuage, barn and buildings called Cattsford."
Both house and privy are shown on the OS map of 1891. The house has no front porch on this map but has acquired one by the 1898 OS map. Otherwise the footprint has remained unchanged but since the 1908 OS map the range of associated farm buildings to the south-west of the house has been demolished.
Cattsford was a tenant farm until the 1930s when it became a nursery and it is now in residential use.
SOURCES: Records about Cattsford, including the deeds, are kept at the East Sussex Records Office at Lewes.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
Cattsford and associated privy are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Cattsford is a former famhouse of circa 1775, on a site documented since the early-C17, which retains its plan form of a two bay end chimneystack house with part catslide outshot;
* The exterior of brick in Flemish and English garden wall bond and tile-hanging is substantially intact;
* The interior retains a number of original features including two open fireplaces, bread oven, exposed ceiling beams, partition walls, winder staircase and plank doors;
* An additional point of interest is a reused C15 dais beam;
* The associated free-standing privy is a rare surviving example of a late C18 privy, even rarer because it is a three-seater.
