Rape of Hastings Architectural Survey

Project type: Building Recording

The Rape of Hastings Urban / Rural Historic Buildings Project and associated training of a recorder in historic domestic buildings

Project Summary The ‘Rape of Hastings’ is an area within eastern Sussex located within the heavily wooded and undulating High Weald that includes 36 rural parishes and four towns. In terms of domestic architecture the study area is representative of the historical houses which survive over a large part of the counties of Kent and East and West Sussex. Collectively the surviving historic houses and farm buildings of the region form a nationally important concentration and make an important contribution to the area‘s distinctive character.

The project has two main elements, firstly to undertake specialist work to undertake the analysis, synthesis and publication of a large sample of domestic buildings of pre-1750 date located within the Rape of Hastings and make this information available to local Conservation Officers, Conservation Architects and other professionals in order to assist them in making meaningful decisions regarding the future of the built environment as well as raise and support public awareness and appreciation. The other element is to undertake a two-year training placement in the recording and analysis of historic buildings from the South East of England to include practical experience of historic building recording / analysis, an understanding of the legislative framework, construction of historic buildings, the history and development of different building types and to develop the skills and experience to be able to carry out analysis and synthesis of buildings.

Stage 1 of the project ran from September 2007 until August 2009 and consisted of the training programme, database systems development and the urban synthesis of the towns of Battle and Hastings. The trainee Jane Clubb has completed her training and has now started a permanent position with Archaeology South-East as a Historic Buildings Archaeologist. The Battle and Hastings urban syntheses have been completed and stand-alone reports have been deposited with the East Sussex Record Office. The town of Winchelsea has previously been the subject of an English heritage-funded publication and the town of Rye has been analysed as a project funded by another body. The programme of systems development has incorporated the transfer of the pre-existing database to a Microsoft Access operating platform. Further development of the database will be undertaken during Stage 2.

Project Stage 2 started in September 2009 and comprises the RoHAS rural and village synthesis and is programmed to run for two years.

The final project outputs from Stage 2 comprise: stand-alone reports on the rural houses in the Rape of Hastings and houses within the historic villages in the Rape of Hastings, a fully illustrated synthetic monograph covering rural, village and town houses in the eastern High Weald and an integrated on-line database and an illustrated manual of terminology for building elements.

Project Officer: David Martin
Client: English Heritage
Project type: Building Recording