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The manor house is one of the oldest buildings in Eastbourne, yet little is known about this ancient dwelling. Now a private residence, the earliest date for its existence is 1463. There is new evidence of a much earlier medieval hall built in a Wealden Hall style, possibly on lands belonging to a famous knight of King John called Bartholomew de Badelsmere, who in 1308 was granted the Manor of Bourne jointly with his wife Margaret of the influential de Clare family. Known at various times as Eastbourne Manor, Bourne Manor and Gildredge House, it was the home of the Gildredges - the most famous being James Gildredge, Bailiff of Battle (16thC). Through the maternal line it passed to the Gilberts, then the Davies Gilberts, who in the 18th century moved to what is now Gildredge Manor in modern-day Gildredge Park. During the Regency era Mary Ann Gilbert, an agronomist in her own right, established local schools and developed ways of feeding the rural poor on Beachy Head. She married the Parliamentarian and President of the Royal Society Davies Giddy, who, at the age of fifty, changed his name to Davies Gilbert in order to inherit his wife's family's estate. Highlights of the tour include a reconstruction of the old medieval hall, a bedchamber with Elizabethan wall paintings discovered in the 1950s after a fire, some recusant Catholic graffiti on the Drawing Room fireplace, a 'jakes' or internal toilet and an unusual cellar containing the remains of two medieval fireplaces.

Recently restored as a family home, this is the first time it has been open to the public. Pre-booking only, please: harriet.tait@gmail.com / 07572 601334