HALNAKER HOUSE

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A fortified medieval manor house and part of its garden and landscaped grounds. The main buildings, which survive mainly as ruins incorporated into a modern garden, range around a roughly north-south aligned, quadrangular walled courtyard, constructed during the 13th and 14th centuries, with later alterations and additions. Traces of an earlier, 12th century, house built by Roger de Haye, are likely to survive as below-ground archaeological features. The buildings are constructed of flint rubble and clunch with sandstone ashlar dressings, with some later brickwork added during subsequent alterations and repairs. The courtyard was entered through the southern range by means of a 14th century gatehouse of which two storeys survive. Also surviving within the southern range are traces of 16th century additions. After further modifications in the 18th century by the Duke of Richmond, the house was allowed to fall into decay during the early 1880s. The eastern range is occupied by the remains of domestic apartments and a 13th century chapel. There are no visible remains of the western range, but evidence for all buildings will survive in the form of buried features. The standing ruins are Listed Grade I. Water was supplied to the house via a well situated north of the courtyard, and during the post-medieval period, by a sunken, octagonal reservoir, situated on higher ground 130 metres to the north east. This feature, which descends in three terraces to a central depression at a depth of about 3 metres, is known as 'The Cockpit' and may have been subsequently used for cock-fighting. Cartographic evidence suggests that the reservoir, a rectangular garden earthwork and brick revetted terracing to the west of the main courtyard, date to the 18th century.

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[SU 9083 0886] Halnaker House [G.T.] (Remains of)
[T.I.] Chapel [G.T.] Tower [G.T.] Gateway [G.T.] (1)

Halnaker House was a semi-fortified manor-house surmounded by a curtain wall, built originally in the 12th c. The main structure was of the 14th c. with 16th c. and 18th c. modifications. It was allowed to fall into decay in the 19th c. There are remains of a tower at the S.W. end of the S. wall. The chapel (St. Mary Magdalene) of flint walls with stone quoins, 50' long and 20' wide, was built in the 13th c. and was in use up to 1704. None of the 12th c. house survives. The gatehouse which had portcullis and hall, of which some of the walls remain, was mid-14th c. (a). There is a large octagonal shaped excavation a short distance N.E. of Halnaker House identified by Mr. Michell Whitley as the reservoir for the water supply to the house.

This feature has also been described as a cockpit (a) and as a terraced pit said to have been a bear pit. (2-4)

The remains of Halnaker House are as described above, comprising remains of walls and buildings enclosing a large courtyard, they are constructed of flint rubble and clunch with ashlar dressings, with some later brickwork, and are in a fair state of preservation. Some modern restoration work has been carried out. See GPs AO/F/52/46-50.

Centred at SU 90760887 immediately W. of the house and set into a westerly slope are remains of a rectangular earthwork, 50.0m N-S by 30.0m transversely, probably ornamental.

The octagonal terraced pit at SU 90890897 is in good condition: it is much larger and more ornamental than the marsh cock-pit of which there is an example 1 1/2 miles S.W. opposite the Richmond Arms Hotel at Waterbeach (SU 895083). Published earthworks (25' 1912) revised. (5)

The remains of Halnaker House are as described by F1. The rectangular earthwork to the SW of the house is probably a terraced garden (post-1629) (c) and the octagonal feature to the NE a later ornamental feature not shown on 1629 map, with
earthen terraces descending to an octagonal area some 3.0m below ground level. It is bounded by a bank with an entrance to the NE. It is known locally as 'The Cockpit'. Published survey (25') revised. (6)

Brief account of early history of the house. (7)

Note on history and architecture. (8)

The ruins have been listed Grade I. The de Haye family built a big mansion here in the 13th century, which was altered in the 16th century and fell into ruins about 1800. What remains are the stone gateway in the centre of the south front with square towers and parts of the 13th century chapel and 14th century hall in flints. (9)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1914

( 2a) General reference

News Cutting in A.O. Files

( 2b) Sussex Archaeological Society Sussex archaeological collections : relating to the history and antiquities of the counties of East and West Sussex

63 (1922) Page(s)240

( 2) Sussex Archaeological Society Sussex archaeological collections : relating to the history and antiquities of the counties of East and West Sussex

43 (1900) Page(s)201-213

( 3c) Externally held archive reference

Map 1629 Chichester Records Office.

( 3) Sussex Archaeological Society Sussex archaeological collections : relating to the history and antiquities of the counties of East and West Sussex

WH Godfrey 82 (1941) Page(s)59-64

( 4) edited by L F Salzman 1953 The Victoria history of the county of Sussex, volume four : the Rape of Chichester

The Victoria history of the counties of England Page(s)142

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F1 ASP 13-MAR-62

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F2 PAS 07-DEC-71

( 7) by H M Colvin ... [et al] 1982 The history of the King's Works, volume 4 : 1485-1660 (Part 2)

Page(s)125-6

( 8) Royal Archaeological Institute The archaeological journal

K Gravett 142 (1985) Page(s)64-5

( 9) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

Chichester, 28-JAN-1986 Page(s)37

(10) Scheduled Monument Notification

21-JAN-1999

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