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Jaime
Kaminski
Sussex Archaeological Society
Barbican House
169 High Street
Lewes
BN8 1YE
It is often asserted that the 150 years from 1380 witnessed an emerging nouveau riche class, able for the first time to construct houses incorporating a lofty open hall and substantial first-floor end-chambers, which were sufficiently well-built to survive to the present day. That this model is broadly correct there can be little doubt. But by implying that these houses were always constructed in one phase, wholly replacing their predecessors, we are in danger of over-simplifying the true picture. Research within eastern Sussex indicates that at least 29 per cent, and perhaps as many as 40 per cent of our surviving medieval and transitional housing stock are the result of piecemeal enlargement and reconstruction. The former figure is likely to rise as more examples are recognized for what they are.