| This cottage was the only dwelling in existence within
the site many years before the Museum was even dreamt of. Situated just
below the Stables, it was lived in by our Site Manager, Nick Conway and his
family until recently . During the preparation of the Landscape Conservation
Management Plan I had the opportunity to look in detail at the depiction of
the cottage on the tithe map – actually two tithe maps, because by an
extraordinary stroke of good luck it is shown both on the Singleton map of
1846-7 (as it should be) and on the West Dean map of 1847. There is a
significant difference between the two, however, and it is now pretty
certain that Gonville Cottage was built in 1847. We
also now know that in 1851 it was occupied by a shepherd of high repute
named Richard Burns, and south of the cottage, in what is now the garden,
was a U-shaped range of farm buildings, which must have been a sheep yard.
The cottage is therefore full of potential for us, and the Museum trustees
have agreed that it should become an exhibit rather than be let as a
dwelling. To cover the needs of site security we are going to investigate
the possibility of building another house elsewhere on the site.
There is a lot to learn about the cottage and we are
currently planning to carry out a major programme of archaeology both on the
building and on the site. This would take place in the 2009 season and we
hope that it will be a major attraction for visitors to see the project in
progress, particularly for local people.
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