Deeds of The Red Cottage, Fletching Common, Fletching (ESX68736)

The Red Cottage was originally a barn, and converted into a dwelling between 1896 and 1907 (2).

The site was originally held as three copyhold tenements of the manor of Netherhall by quitrents of 4s 6d, 6d and 6d, the third reduced to 2d by apportionment in 1805 and the first to 2s 6d in 1866 (1). Before the partitions, the tenements were described as:

1 cottage, little barn, garden, orchard and four little pieces of land (4½a) on Fletching Common, late Weston, before Weller, before Jupp, before Newman and Buckwell, quitrent 4s 6d

2 a little parcel of land on the E side of the said cottage (1a 1r) at Fletching Common, late Weston, before Weller, before Jupp, before Newman and Buckwell, quitrent 6d

3 1a 1r on the S and lower part of the said cottage, late Weston, before Weller, before Jupp, before Buckwell and Maundy, quitrent 6d.

It can be assumed that the property in the ownership of James Coleman, the manorial tenant, shown on the Fletching tithe map (TD 145) of 1840 and shown by a red line on the map below, is the equivalent of these three tenements. Parts of this narrative have been supplemented by the records of the manor of Netherhall (AMS2679, 2681, 2689-2702, 2704-2705), which are however so defective that it has proved impossible either to trace the early history of the property with confidence or to trace the boundaries of its constituent manorial tenements.

On 10 September 1825 John Sidney Brown, [who had been admitted on his father's death in 1807], surrendered the three tenements (the third reduced by partition to two rods at a quitrent of 2d by the sale of the remainder to Thomas Webb of Fletching, weaver, in 1805), to James Coleman of Fletching, carrier. The same day he mortgaged the property to the Rev Thomas Baden Powell of Newick, clerk, for £250 (1).

On 1 November 1866 Coleman, then out of business, sold part of the first tenement, the second tenement and the remainder of the third tenement to William Kenward of Fletching, formerly of Newick, farmer, for £480. Coleman retained a piece of land (2a 3r 35p), shown on the map above, [to which his son George Coleman was admitted on his death in 1867 and sold to the Searles estate in 1873: SRL 2/20]. The quitrent for the Red Cottage holding was reduced from 4s 6d to 2s 6d. On 2 November 1866 Thomas Baden Powell gave a receipt for the principal of the 1825 mortgage (1).

William Kenward, gent, died at Fletching Common on 25 October 1902. His will of 8 September 1896, proved by his daughter Ellen Eliza Kenward and Robert Kenward of Barkham Farm in Fletching on 12 January 1903, bequeathed his property to his daughter, subject to an annuity to his widow Mary Ann Kenward (d 20 September 1911). The property at Fletching Common was described as:

two messuages, one in three dwellings, a barn, oast-house, lodges, buildings and seven acres near Fletching Common, copyhold of the manor of Netherhall.

When Miss Kenward was admitted before the steward Charles Dawson on 10 May 1907, the first tenement was described as two cottages, one formerly a little barn (2). Miss Kenward enfranchised the copyhold on 29 December 1921 and sold The Red Cottage for £600 to Ethel Dalton of 1 St Katherines Precincts, Regents Park, spinster, on 16 January 1922 (2, 3). Ethel Dalton of The Red Cottage died at St Georges Retreat, Ditchling on 23 May 1953. Her will of 27 February 1950 was proved by her sister Muriel Edith Dalton of 412 Beatty House, Dolphin Square, London and brother Eric Neale Dalton of Coombers Leigh near Reigate on 8 August 1953 (7).

Property to the south of The Red Cottage was sold to Ebenezer John Markwick of Summerheath, Haywards Heath, surveyor on 25 October 1924; on 3 November he sold Cheriton (shown in green on the map above) for £925 to Herbert Merry of Tremains Farm in Horsted Keynes, farmer. On 12 August 1935 Merry, then of Suda, Sea Road, Winchelsea, sold Cheriton for £850 to the occupier James Smith Biggs, who sold on immediately for £975 to Constance Gertrude Blake, wife of Montague Henry Blake of Bretton, The Park, Rottingdean. Mrs Blake sold the property to Thomas Barclay Odell Kerr of White Knights, Newick, gent for £1550 on 22 May 1942 (4-6).

On 22 June 1954 Miss Dalton's executors agreed to sell The Red Cottage for £2700 to James Wilkie of April Cottage, Wilmington (7). On 29 June they granted Thomas Barclay Odell Kerr rights of drainage over The Red House for the benefit of his property The Oast Cottage which lay to its east (3). Wilkie mortgaged the property for £1500 on 16 July 1954 and discharged the mortgage on 24 September 1969. He sold for £70,000 to Pamela Bravery of 99 Upper North Street, Brighton on 28 September 1981 (8-10).