Ewhurst Manor, Shermanbury

Description

Thomas Peverel built a moated manor house here in the reign of Edward I. The moat remains but of the building itself the only survival is the Gateway with the porter's lodge attached to it. Early C14. Built of stone and consists of a carriage arch flanked by buttresses with a room over surmounted by gable containing a cross-shaped loop window. The roof of the archway is of brick with ribbed stone vaulting. Behind the gateway is the porter's lodge which forms a T-shaped building with it of lower elevation. These walls are of stone rubble with a tiled roof timbered beneath. The portion on the west has a trefoil-headed lancet. The portion on each side has an old door connecting with centre, complete with its original bolt. The house now on the site is part of a C16 house, originally of larger dimensions. (Derived from PastScape and Listed Building report)

The moated site at Ewhurst Manor survives well and the undisturbed nature of much of the island will have allowed evidence of the form and organisation of the moated manor to survive. The rarity of oval moats in West Sussex as well as early historical evidence and the survival of early buildings on the island all add to the archaeological potential of the monument.
The monument includes an oval moated site with maximum external dimensions of 110m by 93m. It comprises an island 90m by 65m orientated NNE-SSW, surrounded by a moat 5-10m wide. The ditch is presently water-filled and is up to 2.5m deep. On the north side the moat is interrupted by a causeway which, though not original, is likely to be where the original bridge once stood. The moat was fed by water from the fish pond, situated to the north-west of the site, through an inlet in the northern arm which was regulated by a sluice. An outer retaining bank 7m wide is situated to the east of the ditch and stands to a height of 1.3m. Documentary evidence shows that a moated manor house had been constructed on the site by 1267. On the inner lip of the island, at the access point, is an early 14th century gatehouse and porter's lodge (listed Grade I) and at the centre of the island is a 16th century house (listed Grade II), which has re-used an earlier stone chimney. (Scheduling Report)

The manor house, recorded in 1361, was rebuilt in the late 16th century or early 17th as a timberframed house of two storeys forming three sides of a square. That house was replaced apparently in 1779 by a buff brick building of two storeys with a basement, three bays wide, flanked by lower two-storeyed extensions. The main building was enlarged to five bays in the mid 19th century, when a tower was added on the west. The house, usually known as Shermanbury Place, was also sometimes called Shermanbury Park between the 1830s and the 1920s. (VCH 1987)