April 2013 (issue 129) - The Sussex Archaeological Society

Excavations
BREDE HIGH WOODS
PLASHETT PARK
Research Feature
Brede High Woods ‘Big Dig’
Successful first year uncovers remains of farm buildings
The Woodland Trust, which
acquired Brede High Woods (6
miles north of Hastings, East Sussex,
NGR TQ793201) in 2007, secured a
‘Your Heritage’ HLF grant of £50k
to run a community archaeology
project to help uncover more
about the archaeology and history
of this 262 hectare site. The grant
runs from October 2011 to June
2014. Chris Butler Archaeological
Services is leading the project on
behalf of the Woodland Trust and
we have successfully completed a
rewarding first year of investigations
during which we attracted over 100
volunteers, some of whom regularly
turned up in what were, at times,
truly appalling weather conditions.
The year started fine and dry when
we surveyed a gill stream in Thorp’s
Wood to investigate a potential early
iron working site. Various lumps of
the waste product of iron making
(slag) and the baked clay remains
of the furnace lining were found. A
Roman coin, found in the vicinity
of the site late last year, has been
dated to the Emperor Valens, circa
364-378 AD. We shall return to this
site in April 2013 for a three-week
period of excavation and surveying
in the immediate area.
Our first dig of the year was on
the site of Brede High Farm, where
over a period of three weeks more
than 25 volunteers worked on the
site carrying out a range of activities
including excavation, recording
and finds processing. Together
with a combination of geophysical
surveys, looking at old maps and
excavation, some foundations of
the farmhouse were found but it
was the farm buildings that were
easier to locate. These included
pigsties and the foundations of
an oasthouse. A large amount of
building material, pottery, glass
and metal was recovered during
Excavating the iron working site, Brede High Woods.
the excavation which was cleaned
up and is now in the hands of
specialists for analysis. Most of
the finds date to the late 19th and
early 20th century, though some
are possibly earlier. The site was
backfilled, although some of the
walls have been left exposed.
Further work will be carried out
here this year and this will hopefully
make it easier for the casual visitor
to understand what now remains.
The house was first recorded on
a map in 1767 and probably dates
to the late 17th century. It was
comprehensively demolished in
the 1930’s when the Powdermill
reservoir was being built.
We then moved to the site of
Austford House and its coach
house. Initially the walls of the coach
house were stabilised as they were
in danger of collapsing. In October
the floors of the coach house were
cleared of metres of mud and debris,
revealing some interesting features
which included a deep, render-lined
waterproof tank, which under the
wet conditions soon filled up with
Photo: V Blandford
water. The yard between the coach
house and the foundations of the
house was exposed. A large, well
built cellar with a complete flight of
steps was uncovered and, on the
south facing front of the house,
a substantial bay window and
porch were revealed. This site was
backfilled in November.
We are also carrying out oral,
documentary and historical
research. We were lucky enough
to interview a local man who had
lived at Brede High Farmhouse just
prior to its demolition and he was
able to fill in some valuable details
about the scullery, water pump and
locations of the toilets in a shed
at the bottom of the garden. He
was also able to provide us with a
picture of the farmhouse.
If you would like to take part in
this project please contact Chris
Butler Associates via email brede@
cbasltd.co.uk or call 01323
811785.
Vivienne Blandford
Even some woods and farms
in Sussex have names which
are known in different forms round
the world. One example is Plashett
Park, Wood and Park Farm located
north-east of Ringmer, near Lewes.
Plashett Park was a gentleman’s
hunting park and the gentleman
concerned in this case was the
Archbishop of Canterbury until the
Dissolution when it was acquired
by the Gage family.
Location of Plashett Park Image: J Kay, SAC 138
In the early 14th century there
were, according to South East from
AD1000 (Brandon & Short), 380 deer
parks for hunting in Kent, Surrey
and Sussex; the possession of a
park had become a status symbol,
even for knights and the lesser
gentry. So it is not surprising that
almost adjoining Broyle Park (the
name of which is derived from the
old French breuil, meaning hunting
park, see the writer’s article in this
What’s in a Name
From Cardinal Richelieu to Plashett Park
journal of August 2005) there were
others nearby, and one is called
Plashett Park.
Mawer & Stenton’s ‘Place
Names of Sussex’ tells us that
the name is of Romance origin
from the Late Latin plessetum,
plassetum a woven enclosure.
Why woven Because the fence
was of living wood with interlacing
branches (Delisle, L’Agriculture en
Normandie au moyen age). Sharing
similar etymology are English
words like pleached and plaited.
There are similar names in Essex
(Pleshey), Herefordshire (Platch),
Hertfordshire (Plashes), Norfolk
(Plasset), Northumberland (Plessey
Woods), and even in London, East
Ham, where Plashet Grove still
exists (Weinreb & Hibbert’s London
Encyclopedia and Reaney’s Essex,
EPNS).
The fence or hedge was, in the
case of our Plashett, intended
to keep the deer in the park.
But elsewhere it was used as a
fortification, to keep people out.
The corresponding name in France
is Plessis and it is widespread in
the northern part of that country
because there the emphasis is
not on keeping animals in (the
appropriate name for which is parc)
but on keeping humans out. It is the
name of a chateau, a fortification.
Nine place names are listed in the
Paris region alone (Noms de Lieux
d’Ile-de-France by Marianne Mulon),
the strangest of which is Plessis-
Robinson, a Plessis which was first
mentioned in 839 and was named
progressively, Plessis–Raoul,
Plessis-Piquet, Plessis-Liberté at
the time of the Revolution, back
again to Plessis-Piquet in 1801 and
finally, in 1909 it took on the name
of a cafe/dance hall named after
Swiss Family Robinson, the name
of which was inspired by Robinson
Crusoe.
We must not forget the family and
business name Plessis and its kin
in this country and elsewhere since
at least 1204 (Gilbert de Plessis,
Oxford Dictionary of Surnames,
Reaney & Wilson). One example
is the family name of Cardinal
Richelieu, Chief Minister of Louis XIII
and claimed to be the world’s first
Prime Minister (Cardinal Armand-
Jean du Plessis de Richelieu). Other
occurrences of the name include
the industrial company Plessey
(now no more), Plessis Armouries,
a South African cricketer (Francis
du Plessis), two rugby players of
distinction (Bismarck and Jannie)
and a former Liverpool footballer
born in the French West Indies
(Damien Plessis).
Finally, a notorious, now overruled,
US Supreme Court case: Plessy v
Ferguson 1896 (races separate but
equal) bears the name.
All this from the name of a
hedge.
Colin Child
Theft of millstones from famous Sussex landmarks
Five millstones worth £5000 have been stole from the site of the famous Jack and Jill Windmills at Clayton.
The demand for unusual garden ornaments is fuelling this type of theft. If you are buying anything of this
nature, please check the The Salvo Directory website www.salvo.co.uk which has a list of over 200 items
believed to have been stolen and question any seller carefully as to where your prospective purchase came
from.
Sussex Past & Present April 2013
www.sussexpast.co.uk www.sussexpast.co.uk Sussex Past & Present April 2013