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Alfriston Clergy House

The Clergy House at Alfriston is proof that life goes on. This lovely building may have been built as early as 1350, following the Black Death which reached Britain in 1348. The plague may have killed up to a third of the population. This is an almost unimaginable disaster, and sometimes we do get a feeling of the crisis that ensued. National Trust literature mentions Latin graffiti on a church in Hertfordshire: "1350, wretched, wild, distracted. The dregs of the mob alone survive to tell the tale." On the other hand people do have a uncanny ability to accept whatever life throws at them. Chaucer was a young boy living in London at this time, and records available for his family reveal that people continued to buy and sell houses and live their lives. There was no social breakdown. In fact some people did rather well out of the upheavel, and one of those people was the yeoman farmer who built the Clergy House at Alfriston. With labour on the land now scarce the peasants that survived could now sell their labour to the highest bidder, and they were in a position to hold out for a good price. This was a social turning point in English history, putting power into the hands of the people who worked on the land, and taking power away from the feudal lords. Perhaps the Latin graffiti writers in Hertfordshire were a bit put out by this turn around, seeing the newly powerful peasants as "the dregs of the mob." Nevertheless society was now more mobile. A more modern, wage earning culture had been born. A farmer from Alfriston celebrated by building himself a fine house.

It was an open hall house, with single rooms on two stories at either end. If this house does date from 1350 then this arrangement which allowed for private room on either side of the hall was very modern for its time. Until around 1400 the usual arrangement for a house of this type was for a large open hall in which everyone in the family lived and slept together. Sectioned off rooms at either end became fashionable from about 1400 onwards, so the Clergy House was certainly of an up to the minute design. By the 1550s, once again following the trend towards the division of living space, the large open hall was divided horizontally by inserting a new floor. In the restored house this floor has been omitted, giving the original open hall in the middle of the house. Logs of wood lie ready in the middle of the floor for the fire.

In the Fifteenth Century the house became the property of Michaelmas Priory, and remained Church property for five hundred years. By the nineteenth century the building was derelict. The local vicar F.W. Beynon started a campaign to save the Clergy House, and in 1896 it was sold for a nominal £10 to a new organisation known as the National Trust. This was just the sort of humble building that the Trust had been set up to save. Castles and manor houses often looked after themselves, but the houses of fourteenth century yeoman farmers were probably going to need some help. The Clergy House became the first property to be acquired by the National Trust.

Alfriston Clergy House is just off the B2108 in Alfriston village, East Sussex. Click here for an interactive map centred over Alfriston Clergy House.

Opening Times: The house is open from 1st to 9th March 11am - 4pm weekends only, from 15th March to 26th October 10am - 5pm Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and weekends and from 27th October to 21st December 11am - 4pm again Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and weekends.

Access: wheelchair access in the house is difficult. A photo album tour is provided. Grounds are partly accessible. There are Braille and large print guides.

Contact:

phone: 01323 870001

web site: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-alfristonclergyhouse.htm