Chantry Farm, Church Street
| Chantry Farm, Church Street | |
|---|---|
 | |
| LL ref: | 413 |
| Start date: | C18 |
| Architect: | unknown |
| Builder: | unknown |
| Original use: | Farmhouse |
| View on map: | |
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Set back from Short Lane at the end of Church Street within a garden enclosed by flint cobbled walls it lies within the setting of St. Peter's Church and forms part of the Old Town village core.
Large detached building on a sloping site with 1-2 floors and a full-width lower-ground floor room. The elevations are of stone and red brick with variations in bonding suggesting different periods of construction, the most recent being the later Victorian north wing. Slate roof comprised of several pitched elements with hips and gables; one single, one paired and one triple chimney stacks. Wooden casement windows, non-original.
Chantry Farm was originally the farmhouse to a large farm, throughout the 19th century, owned by prominent local family, the Brooks. It was in agricultural use until the early 1950s, becoming the rectory to St. Peter's Church when the original Georgian rectory to the north of the church was sold to become a rest home (demolished in the 1960s to make way for St Peter's Park care and nursing home). It was sold by the Church when a new rectory was built on the northern half of its garden in 1995, reverting to its pre 1954 name, Chantry Farm.
It is a fair assumption that to say that Chantry Farm (or Church Farm as it was known), with its southern boundary touching the boundary of St. Peter’s, was once closely aligned with, if not owned by, the church parish. There are no records of its tenement in the Court Rolls, marking it as one of the few independent properties from the Manor of Bexhill in the 16th century.
Before the close of the 18th century the farm had passed into the hands of William Lucas Shadwell. He sold the farm in 1802 to Arthur Elphick Brook for the sum of £2200. At the time the farm covered 52 acres that stretched north along Holliers Hill. Son of the prominent Arthur Brook (of Brook Lodge, now The Grange), he managed the Farm with his brother Stephen, along with Stephen’s farm at Collington and much of the Dorset Estate. In total they managed 990 acres until 1824 when the partnership was dissolved. The farm was inherited by his son, Arthur Sawyer Brook in 1836 who continued to manage the land for William Pitt Amherst, and rose to such high esteem in the town he was awarded the nominal title of “Squire”. However, Bexhill was changing - the development of the seaside resort was swallowing up huge areas of agricultural land once owned by the manor. At the time of Squire Brook’s death in March 1890 his management of the farmland had shrunk to 120 acres. He was buried at Barrack Road cemetery. Chantry Farm stayed in the Brook family, passing first to Arthur John Brook in 1890, and then to Arthur Farncombe Brook in 1928. The farm’s tenant during this period was Thomas Morris, who lived there with his wife Sarah and four children and later Mr Leonard Pocock. The Brook’s ownership of the farm came to an end in 1928 when a large portion of the land to the north was sold off for the development of Chantry Avenue. The cottage and remaining farm land was put up for sale at the same time.
The working farm ceased in 1954 and the land was further developed. A new rectory was built in the grounds in 1995 and the cow barn was converted into a very desirable residence containing many original features.
Nominated by the Bexhill Old Town Preservation Society