Sussex Locations Added To England's Heritage Listings In 2020

Thursday, 17 December 2020 09:17

By John Warburton @Warblefly

Part of the New House, Wadhurst Park, design © John Outram Associates, photo © Geraint Franklin, supplied by Heritage England

A garden near Arundel, a house in Wadhurst once owned by people behind Tetra-Pak, and a threshing barn near Lewes are among Sussex's newest listed historical sites.

The five locations, chosen this year by Heritage England, are significant places to be preserved for the future.

Across all England, more than 400 new listings were made in the last twelve months.

At Wadhurst Park in East Sussex, a late 20th century house designed by John Outram Associates has entered the listings.

According to Heritage England, The New House, along with the associated orangery, the Millennium Pavilion and other construction, is particularly distinctive.

Its new listing states:

"It is a late-C20 country house designed in a highly creative and idiosyncratic architectural language, executed with absolute consistency of vision and meticulous quality of detail.

"It is of merit for its use of materials, from the innovative ‘blitzcrete’ and coloured concrete to the marquetry and polished plasterwork.

"Creativity and craftsmanship runs throughout the building’s fabric.

"It marks the evolution of Outram's architectural expression, the house reflects his innate understanding of classicism and structure, the orangery the flamboyance of his mature work, and the Millennium Pavilion, the ultimate development of his personal iconography."

Heritage England calls it:

"The most important English building by John Outram, a singular figure in late-C20 architecture who built little in this country."

The house was once owned by Hans Rausing and his family.

Mr. Rausing was one of the people behind the Tetra-Pak packaging company, and was described in 2002 by Sussex journalist Nick Davies as having "lived quietly in a purpose-built palace" while he and his family were "the richest people in Britain".

Other newly-listed buildings in Sussex are:

The threshing barn at the Southern Farmstead in Southease between Lewes and Newhaven,
Bentley Wood, in Knowle Lane, Halland, near Lewes
1 White Cottages, Slaughams Ghyll, Sheep Plain, Crowborough,
Denmans Garden Denmans Lane, Fontwell, near Arundel

Nigel Huddleston, Heritage Minister, said:

"Every year, Historic England works to protect the most significant historic sites across the country.

"Despite the challenges that the heritage sector has faced this year, 2020 has seen many brilliant additions to the List.

"We want to ensure England’s rich and varied cultural heritage is protected so that the public can continue to cherish the heritage that makes their local places so important."