Charleston Manor

Heritage listing

Details Formal and informal gardens surrounding the former home of the painter, Sir Oswald Birley, laid out in the 1930s by the architect and garden designer Walter Hines Godfrey and planted by Sir Oswald and Lady Birley. HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT The present Manor was established on the site by at least the C12 and was recorded in Domesday Book as Carlestone. Charleston functioned as an agricultural farmstead, tenanted during the C19 and then in use as labourers' accommodation before standing empty in 1931. The painter Sir Oswald Birley (1880-1952) and his wife bought Charleston in that year and in 1932 commissioned the architect and garden designer Walter Hines Godfrey (1881-1961) to refurbish the house and lay out the garden. The Birleys established the Sussex (later the Charleston) festival at the Manor which continued until the house was sold in 1980 after Lady Birley's death. The property has changed hands several times since but the gardens survive largely as designed by Walter Godfrey with the present (1996) private owners continuing the tradition of the annual music festival. DESCRIPTION LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING Charleston Manor lies on the east side of the narrow road which runs north/south along the eastern edge of the Cuckmere valley, c 1km north of West Dean and 1km south of Littlington village. The 4ha garden is concealed within Charleston Bottom, a narrow, west-facing combe of the South Downs. The garden occupies the valley floor and extends up the north-facing side of the combe, above which lies Friston Forest. The South Downs Way runs north to south along the eastern edge of the garden. The boundaries of the present garden were established by the end of the C18, the Tithe map of 1840 showing the narrow belt of woodland which now encloses

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.