Bibliography - Vernacular Architecture
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Timber Supply and Timber Building in a Sussex Parish, by C. R. J. Currie, published 1983 in Vernacular architecture (vol. 14, article, pp.52-54) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 9089]   View Online

This paper questions the commonly held view that the quality and number of timber framed houses in a district reflects the local availability of standing timber. A case history is provided from records and standing buildings of the parish of Warminghurst (Sussex). The settlement history and forms of tenure are summarized. It is then shown from written evidence that, while there was much standing timber in the Middle Ages and later, the policy of landlords from the 15th century, if not earlier, was to treat that timber as their private resource and to encourage tenant builders to re-use material from demolished buildings. That evidence is confirmed by a brief examination of houses and farm buildings surviving from the 15th to the early 18th century.

Detached Kitchens in Eastern Sussex: A Re-assessment of the Evidence, by David Martin and Barbara Martin, published 1997 in Vernacular Architecture (vol. 28, article, pp.85-91) accessible at: British Library   View Online

It can be demonstrated that, after houses and barns, detached kitchens were once the most common building type present in the landscape of south-east England, yet today very few examples survive. Those which do mainly date from the period 1450-1550 and are surprisingly large and complex. They range in length from two to four bays and usually have more than one ground floor room and at least one, and often two or more upper chambers. Although all incorporate non-standard features, in general appearance the surviving examples closely resemble small houses. It is often only their location, close to the rear of a main house of more standard layout, which indicates their true function. Documentary evidence suggests that, in addition to the kitchen itself, the buildings housed such service rooms as bakehouses, and milkhouses. The upper chambers gave extra storage and accommodation.
It should be stressed that those kitchens which survive are likely to represent the larger, more elaborate examples. Many of those which have been lost may have been nothing more than single-roomed, single-storeyed outhouses. Yet the fact cannot be ignored that there would have been a considerable difference in status between those households with, and those without detached kitchens, despite the surviving houses being of similar size and layout. The importance of the detached kitchen in relation to vernacular studies should not be underestimated.

End reversal during the conversion of medieval houses in Sussex, by David Martin, published 2000 in Vernacular Architecture (vol. 31, article, pp.26-31) accessible at: British Library   View Online

When in the post-medieval period chimneys and first floors were inserted into medieval open halls, the uses to which the rooms beyond the hall were put was reversed in a number of examples in southern England. In these, those rooms which had previously fulfilled a service function were now converted into a parlour, whilst the old parlour was down-graded to service use. Although there are occasional exceptions, the phenomenon usually occurs only in those houses where an axial chimney of three or more flues was to be inserted and one of the new fireplaces was intended to serve an end parlour. Obviously such a fundamental redesign of a building would not have been undertaken unless the modifications offered very real economic or functional advantages for the owner. This paper uses examples from East Sussex to explain why, in Sussex at least, such changes were carried out. It demonstrates that the changes were the result of a two-stage modernisation of medieval houses and reveals the need for caution in seeking a mechanism to explain such phenomena, for what at first seem the obvious reasons might, upon further research, prove to be only a small part of the story.

Two Sussex examples of the contribution documentary sources can make to the study of buildings, by Annabelle Hughes, published 2001 in Vernacular Architecture (vol. 32, article, pp.48-53)   View Online

Specialists and students of vernacular architecture alike must have welcomed a paper by David and Barbara Martin using the evidence from their comprehensive research in the rape of Hastings to establish the reasons for alterations and additions to medieval and transitional houses. Examples of this phenomenon have increasingly been recognised as more assiduous fieldwork is carried out, compelling a re-evaluation of historical generalisations.
Over the last decade, it has been very encouraging to see the moves towards greater cooperation and sharing of knowledge between different fields of historical investigation - historians, archaeologists, geographers - and the acceptance of the study of vernacular architecture. Because the latter has been a comparative newcomer, many of those involved were drawn from a varied range of disciplines, and this has probably been something of a catalyst in the movement towards greater integration.
Given below are two particular examples of the way that an interpretation of historical structure and local documentary research can be brought together to illuminate and enlarge upon an understanding of each other.

East Grinstead, West Sussex Dendrochronology Project, by D. H. Miles and M. J. Worthington, published 2001 in Vernacular Architecture (vol. 32, article, pp.84-86)   View Online

Horsham Area Dendrochronology Project, by Daniel Miles and Michael Worthington, published 2002 in Vernacular Architecture (vol. 33, article, pp.99-101)   View Online

Variation in the survival rate of timber-framed buildings in two Sussex parishes, by Diana Chatwin, published 2003 in Vernacular architecture (vol. 34, article, pp.32-36) accessible at: British Library   View Online

During the recording of the timber-framed houses in the adjacent parishes of Slinfold and Rudgwick, it became evident that there was a significant difference in the survival rate of houses in the two parishes. There are eighty-nine surviving timber-framed houses of all ages in Rudgwick, but only forty-five in Slinfold. Allowing for the smaller acreage of Slinfold parish, this gives 14.8 houses per 1000 acres in Rudgwick, compared with 10.6 for Slinfold. This article seeks to explain why this may be so, and also places the survival rates for these two parishes within the wider context of those for other West Sussex parishes.

The configuration of inner Rooms and chambers in the transitional houses of Eastern Sussex, by David Martin, published 2003 in Vernacular Architecture (vol. 34, article, pp.37-51) accessible at: British Library   View Online

Using a tool known as planning analysis, this paper explores the relationship between the first-floor chambers within a group of transitional houses within East Sussex for which the internal communications can be reconstructed. It demonstrates that the chambers in these houses were organised into ?suites' of connected rooms, suggesting that very specific uses were intended. In this, the article poses questions rather than provides answers.

Butts Cottage, Kirdford: The Conversion of Trees to Timber in The Rural Sussex Weald, by J. C. Kirk, published 2004 in Vernacular Architecture (vol. 35, article, pp.12-20) accessible at: British Library   View Online

In 1972, VA published an account of Oliver Rackham's survey of a late medieval timber-framed house at Stanton, West Suffolk, in which he deduced from the surviving structure the amount of timber the original had required, its cost, and how many trees of varying ages and sizes had been used to build it. Following the example of Rackham's work, a similar survey of a typical sixteenth-century timber-framed house in the Sussex Weald was carried out, which has not only revealed striking differences between the two regions in the type of trees used and the way in which they were worked, but also valuable information about the early-modern Wealden landscape and contemporary utilisation of its resources.

An Early Vernacular Hammer-Beam Structure: Imberhorne Farm Cottages, East Grinstead, West Sussex, by J. Clarke, published 2005 in Vernacular architecture (vol. 36, article, pp.32-40) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/501316] & British Library   View Online

Imberhorne Farm Cottages 1-3 (TQ 373384) are, from the exterior, Victorian farm-workers' cottages. The outward appearance, however, hides the impressive remains of Imberhorne Manor House, containing an early archbraced false hammer-beam roof, tree-ring dated to 1428. The structure is compared to other surviving arch-braced examples and shows strongest similarities to the design of Westminster Hall, but lacking its elaborate mouldings and sculpture. The lack of adornment enables the detail of the design to be determined, showing considerable strengthening of the braces and retention of the hammer beam and post as single elements undivided by the arch. The construction of such a building within thirty years of the completion of Westminster Hall makes this property particularly important within the milieu of the developing structure of the arch-braced hammer beam, and demonstrates the influence of Westminster Hall in a vernacular context.

The Distribution and Dating of Wealden Houses, by Nat Alcock, published 2010 in Vernacular architecture (vol. 41, article, pp.37-44)   View Online

A gazetteer of Wealden houses has been compiled from information provided by Vernacular Architecture Group members. The locations of the houses are mapped and correlated with settlement character, and the distinction between rural and urban Wealden houses reiterated. The forty Wealden houses dated by dendrochronology are also mapped and discussed.