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Following the agricultural decline of the fourteenth century many medieval village communities collapsed. By the 1660s Hangleton had just five households and West Blatchington only one. Large areas of agricultural land came under the ownership of a few rich tenant sheep farmers. During the Tudor and Stuart period there was a wave of rebuilding and earlier timber farmhouses being replaced with stone buildings.
In 1540 the Bellingham family built Hangleton Manor. It still has many Tudor features including carved stone fireplaces, a decorated ceiling and a carved oak screen bearing a translation of the Ten Commandments.
At Benfield the Covert family were lords of the manor from 1449 until the seventeenth century. The fourteenth century manor house was rebuilt by Walter Covert in 1611. The manors at Portslade and West Blatchington were also expanded at this time.
With wealth and land there also came responsibility for local defence. Walter Covert of Benfield was ordered to carry out a survey of coastal defences in 1587. In 1588 Bellingham of Hangleton contributed £20 to the defence against the Spanish Armada, about £3,500 in today's money.
See objects in the Tudor and Stuart section of the local history gallery, Hove Museum & Art Gallery
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Tudor and Stuart
