Bakehouse at Strawberry Hall

Summary

Late-C19 bakehouse and storage barn.

Reasons for Designation

The bakehouse at Strawberry Hall, a late-C19 bakehouse and storage barn, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
 
Architectural interest:
 
* although relatively modest and late in date, it is a carefully designed agricultural building, built to follow the architectural language of the farmhouse, including steeply pitched roofs and a substantial chimney stack;
 
* it survives very well externally and internally, demonstrating its function through the survival of a brick-built kiln and bread oven.
 
Group value:
 
* as an integral part of the historic farmstead, located immediately north of Strawberry Hall and to the east of the oast house, both of which are listed at Grade II.

History

The bakehouse is first shown on the 1899 edition of the Ordnance Survey map and was probably the last major agricultural development at Strawberry Hall Farm.
 
The site of Strawberry Hall is referred to as Pickbones on a map of 1740 for the estate of William Pettit and the farmhouse is also shown on a draft surveyors map of 1800. Archive records (see Sources) of 1833 describe the site as a messuage of a house (Pickbones) a barn and a stable. In 1825, Robert Banks Jenkinson (1770-1828), the 2nd Earl of Liverpool and the Prime Minister of the day, made nearby Buxted his principal home. He set about moving the existing village to enable the extension of his parkland. By 1839, Pickbones had also become part of the Buxted estate. During the mid-C19 the farmstead was developed by the construction of an oast with stowage barn and an adjacent courtyard of barns to the west. In 1880 the estate passed by marriage to Viscount Portman and around this time the site became known as Strawberry Hall Farm.

Details

Late-C19 bakehouse and storage barn.
 
MATERIALS: mixed-stock brick in Sussex bond, under a clay-tile roof.
 
PLAN: an L-shaped building aligned east to west and projecting south at the west end. The east-west range has a covered storage area to the east end and a former bakery to the west, both accessed from the south side. The east end also has an opening to the north side. The north-south range is formed by a barn with vehicle access from the north side.
 
EXTERIOR: the building consists of a low-set, single-storey, under a steeply-pitched roof and is dominated by an axial, corbelled chimney stack with three clay pots. To the south elevation and towards the centre, there is a planked entrance door to the bakery, which is also lit by a multi-paned casement window. The east end is open-fronted and supported by a cast iron column and a C20 timber screen. The west end is formed by the south gable of the north-south range. The east and west elevations are blind. The north elevation faces on to the road. It has a set of functional C20 doors to the west end beneath a timber-boarded gable and to the east end, there is a high-set, planked taking-in door with iron strap-hinges.
 
INTERIOR: all rooms are bare-brick. On its eastern wall, the bakery has a brick fireplace surround with a C19 fire grate. Canted off to the north, there is a brick-built bread oven with kiln below. Within the east-west range the floor is cobbled, and the roof is constructed of machine-cut timber. The common rafters meet at a ridge board and are supported by purlins, tie-beams and collars. The north-south range has a roof of similar construction and is one open-plan space with an earth floor.

Sources

Websites
Pickbones on map of the Estate of William Pettit in Buxted, Lindfield, Maresfield, Pevensey and Wivelsfield in 1740, accessed 24/11/2020 from https://www.thekeep.info/collections/getrecord/GB179_BMW_C_1_8_4_8#
1840 Tithe Map, accessed 24/11/2020 from https://www.thekeep.info/collections/search/?s=maresfield+plot+pickbones&qa%5Bkeyword_reference_type%5D=0&qa%5Bpartner%5D&qa%5 Btitle%5D&qa%5Bperson%5D&qa%5Bplace%5D&qa%5Bsubject%5D&qa%5Bformat%5D&qa%5Bidentifier%5D&qa%5Bdate_from%5D&qa%5 Bdate_to%5D&cbav=2&cbadvsearchquery

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