If your house has remnants of an oak frame, especially upstairs or in the roof, then it might be 300-500 years old. A dozen historic Chailey houses have now been ‘discovered’, most of them by a group of volunteers from the Wealden Buildings Study Group. So far, the oldest houses seem to be:
- Longridge, dated to 1400-1450
- Coppard’s, tree-ring dated to exactly 1473
- Durrants, 1475-1500
- Furzegrove, 1490-1510
Durrants (centre), dated 1475-1500, one of Chailey’s oldest houses. Postcard franked 27th February 1906 (Chailey Windmill collection).
William Knight, c.1862-1956, farmed Longridge to 1935.
Is your home perhaps very old too? The Wealden Buildings Study Group will be able to tell you if it is medieval (pre-1500), Tudor, or Stuart (up to about 1714 when the Georgian era began). Survey visits and a written report by the Group are quite brief, free, and completely confidential. The Group is entirely independent of the Parish Council or any other official body.
To enquire about having a survey of your house, without obligation, use the Wealden Buildings Study Group Contact Us form.
The Group also welcomes new members, and you can come as a guest to its talks programme events held in Wivelsfield.
