Reedbeds
This fine hall house, opposite the school in Church Street, dates back five hundred years or more, and we think we know its early occupant – a small farmer called John Balsote. The house became known as “Balsattes” for years to come, until its 20th-century owner Charles Franklin White named it after the Adelaide suburb where he came from.
In the 1400s, the Balsote family held between 17 and 24 acres of land around Shoreham, though the family name disappears from village records in the 1500s. The house was then taken on by William Petley, who in 1620 is recorded as mending part of the fence in the churchyard. The prosperous Petleys were the biggest landowners in the village for a time; their other holdings included Filston, the mill and the house that became the George Inn.
The historic structure of Reedbeds has been argued over by experts. Some think that it was a classic Wealden hall house with a large central open space extending up to the rafters. Others say that it had an upstairs and a downstairs from the start. All the experts are intrigued by a building at the back, thought to have been a “detached medieval kitchen”. The risk of conflagrations in timber-framed homes of old was so great that cooking was sometimes moved out of the main building to a safer distance. Smoke-blackened roof timbers in the outbuilding support the theory. |
For much of the 19th century, the house was under the control of Samuel Palmer and his family. During his Shoreham years, Palmer spent part of a legacy buying several houses in the village and living off the fairly meagre rentals. At times he may have let rooms in Reedbeds to some of his friends. By the early 20th century, the house was divided into several cottages occupied by traders and farmworkers. One of them was George Head, a fish hawker famous for storing his fish under his bed. When he was offered free storage elsewhere he declined, declaring that the fish would go off unless he kept it close at hand. |
Read more in Historical Society Publication No 38, “Reedbeds: The Lives of a Shoreham House