Author: Sarah Johnson
Transcript
Welcome to Preston Manor. Little did you know when you set out this morning that you would become a time traveller today. Because the story of Preston Manor and its surrounds actually begins way back in pre-history, in the Cretaceous period approximately 100 to 66 million years ago. The south coast of Great Britain was underwater and as the world slowly changed, layers of sediment from the sifting seas were laid down to eventually become the chalk and limestone that makes up the Downs and Weald of the South East.
Over the aeons, rivers and streams formed and carved their way through the chalk and softer stone of the ancient landscape, eventually creating the Ouse Valley. It was here, near the banks of the Wellesbourne and close to an ancient drove way, that people began to farm the land in earnest.
The oldest written records show that the Bishop of Selsey owned a large parcel of farmland in the area that would become Preston village. In fact it’s believed that the area gained it’s common name from the Old English Prieste-tun or Priests farm. The land was then transferred to the Bishopric of Chichester in 1075, prior to the Domesday survey of 1086.
The land around the Manor at this time was farmed as ‘open’ or ‘common’ fields during the Medieval period with the land being parcelled out into large fields known as ‘laines’. These laines were then broken down and rented out to individuals and families. The land was successfully managed in this fashion for several hundred years until finally in the late 1800s the number of people who owned or farmed the land dwindled to just one – Charles Thomas Stanford.
In 1510, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Manor passed into the possession of the Crown. The Elrington family were brought in to manage it on behalf of the Crown until the male line died out and the Shirley family took their place in 1569. It was the Shirleys who undertook the first major remodelling of the manor in the early 1600s. For just over 140 years the Shirely family managed the land until 1712 when the Western family married in and took up the lineage when, once again, the male line died out.
In 1738 Thomas Western extensively remodelled the manor house, both inside and out, radically changing the shape of the building. However, Preston Manor remained a secondary and little used property until 1794 when Preston Manor and approximately 1,000 acers of land, were sold to William Stanford, a wealthy tenant farmer, for £17,600, and the final chapters of Preston Manor began.
Three generations of Stanfords lived and managed Preston Manor with great success, first as a thriving farm and then as property brokers as the towns of Brighton and Hove began to grow. When Ellen Stanford finally came of age she inherited a great deal of wealth and, with her subsequent husbands, chose to spend a great deal of that wealth on living the life of luxury she believed she was destined to have. Under her stewardship the house underwent several remodelling works, the final of which was in 1905 when an entire new wing was added to the western end of the house.
Ellen and her husband Charles determined that Preston Manor and a small parcel of land should be given over to the Borough of Brighton for the continued education and benefit of the people living in that city. Which is why on a day like today you can travel through aeons of history in just a few moments, all because today you decided to visit Preston Manor.