Catalogue description Deeds of 6 The Green, Ringmer

Six semi-detached houses, numbers 1-6 The Green, Ringmer, were built for Alfred Godden of Brighton shortly before 1894. The houses, with other property in the same area, formed lots 1-3 in the sale of Godden's estate in 1933 when 1-2 and 5-6 were bought by Lewis Arthur Geering, confectioner, who owned the property to the west of number 1. 5 and 6 the Green were known as Maudencote Cottages. In 1965 Geering's daughter sold 5 and 6 The Green to Haron Developments Ltd whose liquidator sold number 5 off in 1969 and number 6 in 1971.

The title to the land on which the houses were built was complicated. It consisted of two freehold and one copyhold tenements of the manor of Ringmer, described in 1894 as:

1 Messuage divided into two dwellings with buildings, close, orchards and garden (1a) at Ringmer Green (N: 2 below; E: land of Alfred George Edward Godden, before William Stevens and formerly Hannah Moore; S: a long narrow slip of land formerly belonging to Henry Hume Spence and conveyed by Frederick Martin and Margaret Martin to Alfred George Edward Godden on 30 Dec 1889; W: partly on lands formerly of Charles Stanford and now known as The Anchor Inn and partly on Ringmer Green) together with the dwelling houses or tenements recently built there by Alfred George Edward Godden; freehold tenement of the manor of Ringmer, quitrent 4d

2 Land (311/2), formerly waste of the manor of Ringmer, lying on the southern side of the Lewes to Horsebridge turnpike (S: 1 above; E, W, N: land now or formerly waste of the manor of Ringmer); former copyhold tenement of the manor of Ringmer, quitrent 5s 0d, enfranchised 1848

3 freehold strip (51/2p) behind 1 above and the properties to its E (N, NE: 1 above; W: the garden of the Anchor Inn; S, SW: a wall belonging to Margaret Martin; plan)

Leasehold interest in 1 and 2 above, inherited by A G E Godden in 1887

On 1 January 1827 Charles Bunting of Cliffe, butcher, (who had bought the freehold in 1825 - see below), granted a 70-year lease of the land to William Martin at £30 a year with an option to purchase for £600, which could be reduced by instalments of £50 or more (1).

The following day Martin paid £60 as part of the purchase money, reducing the rent to £27, at which rate it continued to be paid until 1894 (1).

On 6 June 1843 Martin mortgaged the lease for £100 to Thomas Huson, and the mortgage was discharged by George Bodle on his purchase of the lease on 29 August 1846. Bodle died on 29 January 1879 and the remainder of the leasehold interest vested in [?his grandson] Alfred George Edward Godden on the death of [?his mother] Ann Godden on 19 January 1887 (1).

Strip of land as 3 above, purchased by A G E Godden in 1889

On 29 August 1863 this and other land was sold by James Davies to Margaret Martin who, with her husband Frederick Martin of Lewes, formerly of Ringmer, gent, sold the strip to Alfred George Edward Godden of Brighton, butcher, for £10, reserving a right to enter to repair the wall, on 30 December 1889.

Freehold interest in 1 and 2 above, purchased by A G E Godden in 1894

The following three paragraphs are derived from the court-books of the manor of Ringmer, ESRO ADA 27 and 28.

Tenements 1 and 2 above, late Berry, before Smart and formerly Gower, were sold by Edward Nicholas of Ashton Keynes in Wiltshire, esq, to Charles Bunting of Cliffe, butcher, in 1825.

On 8 July 1834 the property was settled, with the rest of Charles Bunting's estate, for the benefit of his wife Sarah and their children; Bunting was then referred to as Charles Kennard Bunting.

On 3 September 1839 the trustees of Bunting's settlement sold the property to Henry Hillman of Cliffe, gent, who died on 28 December 1845.The property failed to sell at auction on 19 May 1846 and was sold by Hillman's executor James Hillman of Cambridge, builder, to Charles Hillman, gent, George Hillman, gent, Charlotte Hillman and Mary Ann Hillman, spinsters, all of Lewes, on 24 June 1847.

They were admitted to the copyhold on 25 November 1847 and enfranchised it on 1 September 1848. Mary Ann Hillman died intestate on 23 October 1845 and Charlotte Hillman died on 12 August 1875 (1).

By 1894, by the operation of the wills of the two sisters and the rules of intestate succession (specified), the estate was vested in Charles Hillman of 21 Westbourne Street, West Brighton, gent and George Hillman, a person of unsound mind acting by Charles Hillman (1).

In 1894 Alfred George Edward Godden, in whom the leasehold estate was vested, exercised the option contained in the lease of 1827 and the freehold reversion was conveyed to him by Charles Hillman and Alfred George Godden of Brighton, gent, on 29 March 1894 (1).

The whole estate

On 21 June 1898 Godden, then of High Croft Villas, Brighton, purchased a release of the seignory of the freehold tenement (1 above) for £14 10s 2d from William Langham Christie of Glyndebourne [in Glynde], lord of the manor of Ringmer (1).

Godden, of 7 Highcroft Villas, Dyke Road, Brighton, died on 24 March 1933 and his estate at Ringmer Green was auctioned in at least nine lots. On 29 September 1933 his executors (Amy Chambers of High Croft, Stafford Road, Seaford, spinster and Harold Montagu Blaker of 211 High Street, Lewes, solicitor) sold four semi-detached houses, forming lots 1 and 3 in the sale (plan), for £1035 to Lewis Arthur Geering of the Green, Ringmer, confectioner, the owner of a property to the West of lot 1. Other lots were sold to Edwin Henry Divall, Captain John Christie, Gertrude Mary Barrand and Ernest Edward Colwell (2). On 16 August 1935 John Christie sold land to the south-west of 1-6 The Green to Geering, reserving restrictive covenants (8).

On 24 March 1938 Geering, as owner of Maudencote Cottages [5 and 6 the Green], granted a licence to Ernest Colwell, owner of a bungalow called The Bungalow to the rear of Maudencote, to make a connection to his pipe for the supply of water to The Bungalow (3).

Geering died at Ringmer on 27 August 1956 and his widow Rose Geering at 89 Houndean Rise, Lewes, on 15 December 1962. On 21 October 1963 his surviving executrix, his daughter Constance Rose, wife of Cyril Alfred Elphick of 89 Houndean Rise, assented to the vesting of her father's estate in herself. As well as 5 and 6 The Green, the estate consisted of 14 and 16 West Street, Lewes, 99 Western Road and a dairy in De Montfort Road, Lewes, Southdown Villa and Toronto Villa, Ringmer and six acres of land at Norlington in Ringmer (4).

On 8 November 1965 Mrs Elphick sold 5 and 6 the Green to Haron Development Ltd of 21/22 Poland Street, Oxford Street, London W1 for £4500 (5); the company, then registered at 3 Station Parade, Lancing, mortgaged the properties to Barclays Bank to secure its overdraft on 13 June 1966, discharged on 31 August 1967 (6). Liquidators of Haron Development were appointed on 24 October 1967 and sold 5 the Green off to Bertram Frederick Courage and Edith Mary Courage of Broyle Mill Farm, Ringmer, for £2525 on 30 October 1969. The plan attached to the deed shows the flying freeholds between numbers 5 and 6 The Green (7-9, 5).

On 16 August 1971 the liquidators sold 6 The Green, which had been declared unfit for human habitation on 26 June 1969, to the occupiers, Harold Raymond Buckwell and his wife Vera Annie Buckwell, for £1000 (10-12).

Harold Raymond Buckwell of 6 The Green, butcher, died at the Victoria Hospital, Lewes, on 20 August 1972 (13).

Documents given 16 April 1999 (ACC 7883)