History
The Black Horse occupies the western half of a range of cottages on the southern side of and parallel to the Street in Nuthurst. The whole range has tiled roofs, the eastern half (AF) having visible timber-framing in small square panels above brick under-build, a multi-flue stack in two builds within BC and an end stack at F, where there is a flying freehold over DE. The Black Horse is completely faced from E in Flemish bond brickwork making use of the burnt headers in a chequer pattern, and has a large end-stack in HJ. It includes the ground floor DE, and a later addition JK. The roof runs down in a catslide over an outshot along the whole of the fear elevation. The ground floor levels change at E, G and J to accomodate the sloping site.
The floor joisting throughout is plain and of relatively small scantling. Within DF it is longitudinal, and the remains of daubed wattle can be seen to the south of the stack at F. Within FH there are axial girders, slightly off-set. A stair ascends to the south of FG, and the large ingle-nook hearth onto GH has a double spit-rack above the bressumer, on which there is evidence for a spit-jack fixing (northern side).
At first floor it is possible to see wall-framing through FG, on the rear wall and bay divisions. This is generally in slight scantling with small square panels, and long straight tesion bracing where indicated (Dbr). It is worth noting that the bracing at F has been set for a doorway to the south at the top of the stair. There is evidence to indicate a first floor hearth onto GH. Flues have been added to the stack within HJ to serve the additional bay JK, which has stud-wall framing on the southern side onto the outshot.
The roof is constructed with side-purlins supported by a collar at E (where there is a fire partition) raking struts at F and G, and queen struts to a collar at H in front of the stack. The rafters are in sawn timber, and are linked with a ridge board. The purlins have been extended to roof over JK, which is a similar construction to the hip at K, but clearly later. The tiles are fastened with oak pegs.
Conclusions. The style of framing and arrangement of bays to the eastern range would all indicate a dating from the first half of the 1600s. BC may contain evidence of a smoke-bay preceeding the stack. The two bays with end stack (FJ) was probably added towards the end of the 1600s, and re-roofed with a ridge board c1750. Later still, c 1800, JK was added and EK faced with brick The outshot appears to be contemporary, and there was probably a bread oven to the southern side of the hearth in HJ.
Annabelle F Hughes (c) 2001
NUTHURST - Parish and settlement
In Sussex, settlement on the coastal plain and in downiand areas was established and organised before the Weald. That area was largely woodland and heath, and coastal estates had established the practice of 'transhumance' -driving animals into the Weald for summer pasturage-from times long before the Norman Conquest. Each estate regarded as their own those areas to the north where they habitually pastured their pigs, and which provided them with woodland products and resources. The great Domesday survey of 1086 appears to contain very little record of settlement in the Weald, This is because the resources of that area were recorded variously under the relevant coastal estates. Sometimes clues lie in the amount of 'pigs' worth' of woodland or number of ploughs recorded, that seem incongruous given the terrain of a particular manor. Some of the links between the coast and the Weald can still be traced by comparing placenames between the two areas: Climping and Clemsfold, Goring and Goringlee, Durrington and Drungewick, Poling and Palling-ham, -hurst, and fold.
And so to Nuthurst.
The very name of the parish supplies a clue to the origins of settlement there-'the nuttree wood'-providing resources for animals and humans alike. In 1086 its land was recorded variously under the estates or manors of' Coombes (Nut ham) Broadwater (Sedgewick) and an outpost of the Abbey of Fecamp at Steyning (Shortsfield). Each of these Wealden 'outliers', although given a single name, could consist of fragmented holdings in several parishes. Transhumance was stil! being practised between Steyning and Nuthurst in 1228, by tenants of the Abbey of Fecamp, and even in the late 1400s the occupant of an estate at Steyning had 60 acres of pasturage up in Copsale. The earliest surviving record of a land transaction in the parish is in 1206 when 'Cnutheherst' is included in a settlement between Reginald de Tusanvill and Matilda de Berecamp and her son Ranulph de Pierpont. A rector called John Serle was recorded in 1130/1, and architectural evidence suggests there may have been a small church on the site of the present church soon after the Conquest. The earliest recorded corporate patron was the Abbey of Fecamp, which held land locally (see above), and apparently responded to the needs of those who had become settled residents, rather than seasonal visitors. A parish was formed by 1207, and the advowson (patronage) transferred to the Bishop of Chichester in 1231, When the monks of Fecamp were expelled in the early 1400s as part of the campaign against alien priories, the Shortsfield holdings passed into the hands of Syon Abbey, a Benedictine convent, which held them until the Dissolution, under Henry VIII.
One feature which stands out on maps of the parish is Sedgwick Park. Excavations around the old castle site have provided evidence for Saxon settlement, a finding supported by the place-name-'the farm or settlement (wick) by the sedge', Early hunting rights were held by a sub~enant of the lords of Bramber Rape (the de Braose family), Robert le Sauvage, as an outlying part of Broadwater manor, now part of Worthing, (Hence, Broadwater Lane). It is very likely that a 'lodge' was built for overnight use.
Leased in the mid 13th century to John Mansel, chancellor to Henry Ill, licences to crenellate were granted in 1258 and 1262, and the evidence remains for a fortified castle with two concentric moats, an unusual design for England. The castle reverted to the Sauvages in 1265 after Mansel's death'in exile in Paris, and passed eventually into the hands of the dukes of Norfolk, as successors to the de Braose estates. In 1272 the manor, park and castle were valued at £17.12.02, and there were wild horses in the 400a hunting park. Passing in and out of Crown hands, with the fortunes and misfortunes of the Howard family, Sedgwick was occupied by a number of lessees, notably the Carylls, who buiit on a new site to the east. A map was made of the Sedgwick estate in 1701, shortly after it was leased to Sir John Bennet, who bought it in 1705. It shows fields, tenant occupants and tiny sketches of farm houses and barns, as well as the names of abutting landowners. Bennet was credited with a 'small new-built house', probably an addition to the Caryll house, which is shown in a drawing of 1788 by Samuel Grimm. From 1760 the house was in the hands of the Tudor Nelthorpes, and memorials to various members of the family are in the parish church. The house was called Nuthurst Lodge during this period, and was not sold again until after 1862, when Robert Henderson (I) moved into the area; his third son, George, married Florence Lucas of Warnham Court. The eldest son, Robert 11, who was described as an East India merchant in 1881, became a director of the Bank of England, and in 1886, the house was largely rebuilt to the designs of Ernest George. It was to the old house that Robert's brother-in-law, Reginald Hargreaves, brought his new bride to stay; her name was Alice Liddell, to be immortalised in the writings of Lewis Carroll. After the second Robert's untimely death in 1895, his widow Emma (nee Hargreaves) devoted her energies to her home and family. Although there was already a walled garden, conservatory, 'pleasure grounds and ornamental sheets of water' in 1862, the renowned gardens at Sedgwick were largely her creation, and she was also responsible for a considerable addition to the house in 1906. She died in 1931, and so was spared seeing the involvement of her second son, Neville, in the misguided diplomacy which lead to the outbreak of WW2.
Ten houses in Nuthurst parish survive from the period before the mid 1500s, and three of these may have been constructed in the early pari of the fourieenth century-Shuckers, the earliest parts of Keystone Cottage and Copsale Farm. Another seven can be dated to the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and to these can be added a fragment in Rickfield Farm, and possibly Chapel Cottage, adjacent to Keatings. A further fourteen were built after c1550 but before the 1800s, and in all, there are at least thirty houses in the parish that survive from the eighteenth century and earlier.
Probate records, such as wills and inventories of 'goods and chattels' at the time of death, can provide insights into the daily lives of local people. 104 wills (1506-cI800) and 101 inventories (1614-1762) survive for Nuthurst parish,
THE BLACK HORSE
To date there is no firm indication of when The Black Horse first became an inn. There are references in the parish registers to Henry Boniface as a 'publican' in 1818, Edward Jupp as a 'victualler' from 1825 to 1829, and Henry Edrington as the same in 1831, but without an inn name. John Chart, publican or innkeeper, also appears in the registers from 1817 to 1822, and his sons Henry and John from 1831 to 1834. As the White Horse (later changed to the Dun Horse) is recorded at Mannings Heafh in 1794, and this comes under Nuthurst parish, that has to be an option.
The Black Horse has certainly been an inn or public house since 1841, when the occupant, James Sherlock, was described in the census returns of that year as a 'publican'. He was still there in 1845, when the tithe apportionment gives 'Stoveil' as the owner of the buifding. When Stephen Stovell of East Paraae, Horsham, made his will in 1646 he was described as 'grocer and common brewer', so it is a fair guess that he was owning some outlets for his products. The will was proved in 1857, when his eldest son, Stephen, succeeded to the business. Richard Newman is listed in the 1855 Post Office directory for The Black Horse, although in the census return four years earlier, he was described as 'farmer'. The solution probably lies in the 1840 will of John Newman, farmer of Nuthurst.
Insert graphic
1855 "Richard Newman (PO) 1862 William Potter 1895 Martha Potter 1906/7 Charles Still (PIKE) 1914/5 Hen Geo Philp i 915/6 Geo Viney 1925/6 J Waters 1927 Wm Fred Aukett 1 931/3 Wm Locker 1933/5 F Chitty (to 1962)
Among his offspring was Richard, and Martha, wife of William Potter. Martha and her husband were living near, if not at, The Black Horse in 1851, had taken over by 1861 and were to hold the iicence as a family for nearly fifty years. Martha died in 1906, aged 89, having been widowed soon after 1881. The Viney family took over in 1915, their son Frederick was christened in 1918, and their daughter Vera two years later. When George gave up the pub, they moved into the cottage next door, and he was still living there in the 1950s. The PO directories and Pike's 'Blue Books' make it possible to compile a list of the landlords up to the 1960s. A licensee who did not make the directories was George Borrer, whose burial is recorded in the registers in 1928, as was that of William Lock(y)er in 1932.
There is an indication of buildings on the site on the Gardner & Gream map of c1795, though they are unnamed, but the timber-framed cottages and most of the present inn building that completes the range date from before c1750.
There are some tantalising documentary records from 1642 that may provide a clue to the identity of the earlier timber-framed building that extends into the eastern end of the Black Horse.
In 1642 Edward HiII, a 'yeoman' of Nuthurst, died, and his wiil and probate inventory have survived. From his will it is clear he held ,several properties including Woolmers, Little Venters, land at Washington and 'my messuage wherein I nowe dwell.....beinge neere Nuthurste Church'. This was called 'Sir Harryes', and he left to his younger brother Richard. There are few houses that could fit this description, except the eastern part of the Black Horse range, and the constructional details make it possible that it was built by that date. Edward Hill's possessions are listed within a house of three to four lower rooms with bakehouse and kitchen, and three 'lofts' or first floor rooms. In the kitchen there was a cooking hearth with a variety of pots, pans, spits, pothangers and a toasting iron.
In 1656 Sir Harryes is described as
a 'messuage and 16 acres',
and was then being leased by surviving heirs of Edward Hill to Arthur
Rowland, an innkeeper in Horsham. The land was being farmed by John
Darknall, when he died in 1682, and one of his daughters married a
Lindfield. This may account for the entry in an 1805 Sedgwick rental,
where a John Lindfield of Kingston was paying for 'Harry's and Lakers'.
In 1804 Joseph Bates was the tenant of 'Pollintines Croft' as well as
'Sir Harry
(&) Laker's Field'. James Bates was at
Cooks.
Why Sir Harry's? Was it an echo of the name of an earlier landowner, or just a joking reference to some pretentious tenant ?!
CENSUS RETURNS a general introduction
The first British census took place in 1801, and was devised as the definitive answer to the debate about whether the population was either on the increase or decrease---a long-standing eighteenth-century controversy.
Between 1801 and 1831 the responsibility for the counts devolved upon the overseers for the poor and the parish clergy, and were purely statistical. Significant additions to questions made during this period were setting ages in five and ten-year bands, distinguishing males from females (1821) and recording occupations (1831). The original enumerators' returns for 1801-31 were eventually destroyed, except for isolated examples in some areas, rough drafts, and clergy returns for 1831.
In 1841 the census contained questions related to specifically named individuals, and these returns mark the transition towards modern census taking. What had been a mere head count now became personalised data, recording was centralised, and importantly, material survives from 1841 onwards.
There were still limitations in the information recorded. Ages were exact for the under fifteens, but for those over this age were rounded down to the nearest five-year point. From 1851, addresses began to be more precise, and the relationship of each person to the head of the household was given, as well as their' condition' , that is, married, unmarried or widowed. Ages, too, became more precise-to the last birthday, and in months if under one year. Places of birth had to contain both county and parish or town.
The quality of answers still depended on the ability of the enumerator, who might be unfamiliar with the locality, the local accent, or just in a hurry.
All the returns are hand-written, with the usual drawbacks of occasional illegibility, mistakes and the ravages of time. When examining the returns of a specific property or family, over time, the inaccuracies become more apparent.
Add the facts that people were often suspicious, illiterate, unhelpful, had bad memories, or were downright devious, and the need for caution when interpreting the information becomes clear.