In the Rev. William Parish's Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect, published in 1875, cordbats are defined as 'large pieces of wood, roots, etc., set up in stacks'. What better name then for this gloriously distinctive piece of vernacular architecture?

 

The walls are, indeed, made of thin logs set on end and packed around with ( one guesses ) a mixture of earth and cowdung. The thatched roof is an unusual touch, too.

 

Parish was vicar of Selmeston, east of Lewes, and is buried in the churchyard there. His dictionary, augmented and republished in 1957, is humorous as well as scholarly. He notes, for instance, a brass inscription at Selmeston to Henry Rogers, 'a painefull preacher in this church' - noting that the word meant 'painstaking' in earlier days.

 

Access

 

Rye Foreign lies 3 miles north-west of Rye on the A268. The cottage is on your left, immediately opposite the Hare and Hounds public house.

 

 

 

Top of Page       main page:  www.yeoldesussexpages.com