|
|
|
This is from the 1974 guide:-
Parsonage Row Cottages West Tarring Worthing The Ancient Cottages WEST TARRING was one of the many manors in Sussex held by the Archbishops of Canterbury from Anglo-Saxon times to the Reformation. The village would have been in the care of a steward, or of a bailiff, who almost certainly lived and held court in the Old Palace nearby. The village would have had several houses along High Street and near the church, but, as far as can be seen at present, the only ones surviving are those forming the group known as the West Tarring, or Parsonage Row, Cottages. Parsonage Row is a long timber frame building divided into several cottages of which Nos. 6, 8 and 10 at the northern end belong to the Sussex Archaeological Trust and are used by them as a museum. Whereas these three cottages have an attractive timber frame frontage, those further to the south have not because theirs is hidden by later brickwork below and tile-hanging above The part of the building occupied by the museum cottages consists of four bays, the three more northerly ones being of roughly equal size, whereas the fourth is much narrower and is barely large enough to contain the medieval chimney standing in it. The second bay, the one with the handsome gable front on High Street, is, however, not a true bay but a crosswing of three bays with its axis at right angles to that of the main structure. The upstairs rooms of the first bay, counting from the north, and of the crosswing are jettied, that is to say, they overhang the lower ones. The third and fourth bays, on the other hand, are recessed, the wall plate being supported by two rather fine brackets. The upstairs rooms have many features of interest. The rooms in the first bay and the crosswing show the roof structure very clearly. Notice how the weight of the Horsham slab roof is brought down from the rafters, through the collars and collar purlins, to the centres of the tie-beams by the crown posts. From here it is transferred to the posts at each end of these beams. The door in the crosswing, leading from the room at the head of the stairs to the room facing eastwards, cuts through the southern one of the two wall braces, proving that the door came later than the brace and suggesting that the third bay of the crosswing is an extension built on to the second of the crosswing bays at a later time. The door-post of this door should be given special attention, because here we are looking at the top of one of the main posts of the building. Notice how it widens towards the top. This increase in thickness is a common feature and results from the practice of using trees upside down, the root end providing a wider support for the end of the tie-beam. In front of this same door can be seen a square of newer flooring. This area could well indicate the position of the original ladder-like stairs which gave access to the upper rooms. On entering the upstairs room of the third bay of the main building, notice the door to the right of the wide chimney. It leads into a cupboard-like room in between the stack and the outside wall. This small space is situated in the narrow fourth bay. If one looks up in between the chimney and the partition wall, one can see on the timbers and the wall the soot marks and blackening which are a sure sign of a former medieval hall open to the rafters and heated by a wood fire on a hearthstone at ground level. Observe, too, how the collar purlin has been sawn off - another indication that the chimney was built at a later time than that of the house itself. There cannot be many houses open to the public where it is possible to see so easily the signs in the roof of the smoke from the former open fire below. Usually such features have to be looked for in dusty and dark roof spaces. When outside the building attention should be given to the very fine oriel window to the third, or hall, bay. Such a window is rare. Originally it would have extended the full height of the wall and would have been divided into long, narrow unglazed spaces by squarish vertical wooden bars set diagonally to the line of the wall. The remains of these bars can be seen in the wall between the present upstairs and downstairs windows. As so many Wealden timber frame houses were constructed in the second half of the 15th century it is assumed that the same thing happened here. The chimneys came to be added later, frequently within half-a-century. The usual position for the inserted chimney was the narrow passage bay between the hall itself and the service bay. In the case of the Parsonage Row Cottages it was the narrow smoke bay that was so used. While this important change to the building was taking place the open hall itself would have been given an upstairs room by the insertion of a bedroom floor and the large oriel window would have been converted into two smaller ones and what then remained of the open window spaces plastered over to exclude the weather. It is not known how these cottages were subdivided when first built, and the interpretation of what can be seen now is made more difficult because at the Post Office end of the Row the end bay was demolished for road widening and at the northern end there is evidence that yet another bay has gone. To save these cottages from demolition they were bought by the Sussex Archaeological Trust in 1927 and they are looked after by a local Committee of Management. They are dependent for their upkeep on voluntary contributions. In July 1963 Worthing Corporation made a grant of £1,750 for their restoration, on condition that the Committee raised a further £250. In response to an appeal £600 was subscribed within a few months bearing witness to the interest taken by the public in these ancient and beautiful cottages. In the alterations which were carried out in 1963/64 a custodian's private flat was provided on the ground floor, while the upstairs rooms were set aside for a small museum in which bygones and things of local interest, including a facsimile of the Market Charter granted by Henry VI in 1444, could be put on view to the public. All the exhibits are on loan, some of them being directly connected with West Tarring. J.C.W.L., 1967.
|
|
|
