Hyde End House

A Memory of Brimpton.

I was at school (Lindfield) in this fine old Georgian building from 1947-1951 and spent many happy hours playing in the extensive grounds and old outbuildings and stables. One year our dormitory was above the stable block where the principal was raising day old chicks to supplement our austere post-war rations. The awful smell of the chickens remains a vivid memory!

If I recall there was a name carved on the mantlepiece in one of the upper rooms in the older Jacobean/Elizabethan part of the building. Us kids thought the place was haunted by the ghost of Anne Hyde (first wife of James II) who was meant to have an annual visitation on November 25th! Her father was the Earl of Clarendon - Edward Hyde.

I have visited the place twice since and like your correspondent found it in a very dilapidated state on my first visit. When I returned more recently it had been restored and some sort of conservatory built on left side of the house.  Unfortunately the stucco had been removed leaving a red brick exterior.  A local farmer told me that it had been purchased by Middle Eastern interests.