Subsequent alterations were fairly minimal resulting in an aesthetically pleasing building that can be ‘read’ to a high degree, indicating in its standing fabric its origin and development through some 450 years of occupation.

The high-end features of the house, its size and location in relation to grounds and in the first instance, to ancillary buildings, indicate that the person responsible for the construction was one of wealth and status in the community.

Arthur lived until the age of 78 (died in 1917), presumably spending much of that time as owner and occupier of the family home with one notable exception: the house was leased out two years after the death of Dick Weeks in 1847 to the newly formed Hurst College.

The particulars include details of the right of way between the hedge and the southern historic boundary of the Mansion House gardens created by David and Aileen Scott when they built the bungalow in 1979.

The 1736 depiction then clearly indicates some wealth and status for the property owner, but the house is intended to show location and importance over accurate representation in the manner of a map symbol.

The house from the outset would have been run with staff some of which would have been given accommodation on site (house-keeper, nurse-maid), others that would have come in on a daily basis from the village, and still others that would have been drafted in seasonally as required to undertake specific tasks.

Although there is a stack in the same location at the western side of the house it is not clear due to surface finishes if this was original or later and the extant brickwork above the roof line is suggestive of a later date whether as a result of a rebuild or historic insertion is unclear.

Due to the confirmed presence of the Phase 1 stack on the eastern side of the house, the room within the main range served by it will be referred to as the hall, the western counterpart as the parlour.

The inclusion of such continuous horizontal members indicates that no stair turret could have been included at the rear of the house to allow access to the upper floors and garrets as this would have been severely impeded by the purlin height.

The wing included an attached kitchen of good proportions with a substantial cooking fireplace that is retained in situ albeit slightly altered by the insertion of ovens in the late 18th/19th century.

The present partitions within the service garrets may date to the late 17th century in the first instance, a time when corridors and lobbies were created to facilitate separate access to rooms rather than having to pass through one to get to the other in the traditional manner.

Construction comprised small panel framing with interrupted mid-rails formed by vertically set studs extending between the horizontal members (for example sill beam and side girt at ground floor level, visible in the west wall of the kitchen).

On the north side of the roof three robust trimmers indicate the location of gables that had adorned the original front of the house, a feature fashionable among the late 16th century elite.

The studs form the jambs of the doorway between the rooms and are jointed at the base into an upper cross-beam that provided support for the original garret floor (and by extension, the ceiling of the chamber below).

In addition the brickwork of the subsequent Phase 3 southwest extension abuts this earlier south timber framed wall indicating that it was already in situ, (certainly on site prior to the programme of alterations carried out by second Ralph Beard in 1743).

The brickwork of the extension is laid in English bond and much of the fabric is consistent with a mid to late 17th century date with a cut-off point for construction prior to the 1743 scheme that abuts it.

The junction of the surviving timber frame weather clad in tile on the east side and the brickwork of the newly added south elevation is clearly visible as a straight joint at the southeast corner of the building above the old dairy.

The south elevation is rendered over obscuring detail but the west side is exposed and the base of this wall includes a low brick plinth with a chamfered masonry cap.

However, from c.1600 timber-framed construction was already increasingly replaced by mass-construction (brick or masonry) at this level of society, at first reserved for publicly visible elevations, but later as the material became more common and less expensive, for new extensions such as this.

The chimney stack between the main range and west cross-wing may have been added (or altered) at this stage, the brickwork is consistent with an 18th-century origin, but the interior finishes conceal any details that may indicate its pre-existence and as such rebuild during this phase of development.

The Georgian remodelling upgraded this access by adding the arch-ways (both flat and rounded) with dropped key block detail and pilasters at intervals along the length of the corridor to embellish the feature while supporting the floor above.

The Georgian alterations included the replacement of some of the doors with six or eight moulded panel types, often saved for the rooms further up the social hierarchy or indeed more publicly visible, such as those to the ground floor of the main range.

As such, if staff had been accommodated in this location it was probable that they were at the upper end of the hierarchy – perhaps as nurse-maid to the children of the house with good access to the other bedrooms and to the garrets by means of the staircase (S3) situated directly opposite.

The additions of extra flues to the chimney stacks to create heated accommodation within the garrets (and those first floor rooms that had gone without) may date to the 19th century and perhaps for the west wing, the early Edwardian era.

Some of the interior alterations, perhaps the wainscoting of the upper corridor, changes to the south wall of the study, many of the match-board cupboards, hooks, pegs and shelves may date in the first instance to the school years in the mid 19th century.

The upper c. 25 courses are laid in Flemish garden wall bond in larger bricks with occasional over-fired headers culminating in a contrasting coping stone cap.

The visible part of the main range comprises a narrow expanse of tile-hanging at first floor level between the cottage extension and the short return to the brickwork and quoins of the principal elevation.

At ground floor level between the later dairy and cottage, the wall construction is brick laid in Sussex bond standing to 16 courses in height surmounted by a full run of glazing interrupted only by the single-width doorway.

Two modern chimney pots extend up from the north side of the stack, one of which must provide the flue for the range within the present kitchen; it is notable that there are no extant fireplaces in the rooms at the south end of this wing.

Construction (with the exception of the west end of the southwest extension) is still in Flemish bond; the windows retain the fine rubbed-brick voussoirs but lack the central projecting keystone.