East Hanningfield Archive

"This is my photograph of the 1840 Tithe Map for East Hanningfield Rectory, before the 1863 rebuild.  The Rectory is a smaller building, timber like the building shown on the 1614 Petre Estate map of the village, with three free standing buildings north of the Rectory. Lefthand building is the old kitchen block, separate from the Rectory as a fire precaution.  To the right of that is the 'bake and brew' house, also on its own as a fire risk as well.

Both these buildings were incorporated and repurposed in the 1863 rebuild; the kitchen block became a wing of the new house, and the bake and brew house became its new laundry, complete with a supply of soft rainwater, collected from the Rectory roof and stored in an underground cistern or well between the end of the kitchen wing and the laundry.

"In my youth, there was a pump and level gauge inside the laundry to to supply the water for washing.

"Finally, the tiny building to the right of those is believed to be the 'Chapel of Ease', accessed by a small brick bridge, still in existence in my childhood, crossing the deep ditch running north/south beside the Howe Green road."  P. Ost.