Summary

Remains of Slaugham Place, 100m north-east of The Moat House.

Source: Historic England

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 30th October 2014. The record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument includes a late 16th century country house and walled garden surviving as upstanding masonry remains and below-ground archaeological remains. It is situated on the level valley floor of the upper course of the River Ouse, south of the village of Slaugham.

The house was built in the Palladian style to a courtyard plan and enclosed by a walled garden with a moat to the south. The foundations and wall bases now survive to an average of about 1m high. The original entrance was to the north-east, through the walled garden, flanked by a pair of octagonal brick turrets. The north-east front includes three arches of what once was a five-arched loggia of rusticated masonry. On the south-east side of the house are the walls of the former kitchens surviving up to two storeys high with fireplaces and ovens. To the north-west are the foundations of the former great hall and adjoining apartments. The north-west elevation includes a loggia, of the Doric order and three arches with keystones carved with the crests of the Covert family, owners of Slaugham Place, and other families with whom they were linked by marriage. The garden wall is of coursed stone and brick in English bond and forms a rectangular enclosure around most of the house, with a hedge forming the boundary on the south-east side. There is a raised terrace on one side of the garden and a gazebo at each in corner. It is one of the most complete surviving examples in West Sussex of the early style of formal garden planning.

Slaugham Place was built to the design of John Thorpe for Sir Walter Covert between 1579 and 1591. It was partly dismantled shortly after 1735. Alterations were carried out on the site in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

The upstanding remains are Grade II* listed. Slaugham Place is a Grade II registered Historic Park and Garden.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Country houses of the late Tudor and early Jacobean period comprise a distinctive group of buildings which differ in form, function, design and architectural style from country houses of both earlier and later date. Built after the dissolution of the monasteries they are the product of a particular historical period in which a newly-emerged Protestant elite of lawyers, courtiers, diplomats and other officials, mostly with close contacts at court, competed with each other to demonstrate wealth, taste and loyalty to the sovereign. Their houses are a development of the medieval hall with flanking wings and a gatehouse, often looking inwards onto a courtyard. The hall was transformed from a reception area to an entrance vestibule and the long gallery and loggia were introduced. Many houses were provided with state apartments and extensive lodgings for the accommodation of royal visitors and their retinues. Country houses of this period were normally constructed under the supervision of one master-mason or a succession of masons, often combining a number of designs drawn up by the master-mason, surveyor or by the employer himself. Many designs and stylistic details were copied from Continental pattern-books, particularly those published in the 1560s on French, Italian and Flemish models; further architectural ideas were later spread by the use of foreign craftsmen. Symmetry in both plan and elevation was an overriding principle, often carried to extremes in the Elizabethan architectural ‘devices’ in which geometric forms were employed to express religious and philosophical ideas. Elements of Classical architecture were drawn on individually rather than applied strictly in unified orders. This complex network of influences resulted in liberal and idiosyncratic combinations of architectural styles which contrasted with the adoption of the architecture of the Italian Renaissance, and with it the role of the architect, later in the 17th century.

About 5000 country houses are known to have been standing in 1675; of these about 1000 are thought to survive, although most have been extensively altered or rebuilt in subsequent centuries to meet new demands and tastes. Houses which are uninhabited, and have thus been altered to a lesser degree, are much rarer. Surviving country houses of the late Tudor and early Jacobean period stand as an irreplaceable record of an architectural development which was unique both to England and to a particular period in English history characterised by a flourishing of artistic invention; they provide an insight into politics, patronage and economics in the early post-medieval period. All examples with significant surviving archaeological remains are considered to be of national importance.

The remains of Slaugham Place, 100m north-east of The Moat House, survive well with a significant amount of upstanding masonry and Elizabethan architectural details. It is a good example of its type and will contain below-ground archaeological and environmental information relating to the use and history of the site. The walled gardens are a remarkably complete example of early formal garden planning.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
West Sussex HER 4306 - MWS3724. NMR TQ22NE2, TQ22NE25. PastScape 399440, 1158734. LBS 302780. RPAG 2222.

Source: Historic England