Strand house has had a diverse history. Originally a farmhouse, then possibly a medieval brothel for a period in the 15th/16th centuries, a hospital inhabited by monks in the 16th century, a workhouse in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and in 1922 finally converted to a guest house by two sisters and named the Old Poor Houses.
As a workhouse, Strand House served the parish of St Thomas the Apostle, and in 1777 a parliamentary report listed 24 inmates as being resident. With the foundation of the Rye Poor Law Union on 27th July 1835, it was closed and the poor moved to the main Union in Rye, which was on the site of Hill House Hospital, on the Peasmarsh road. Strand House was used as a working farm into the 20th Century.
Strand House is a grade 2 listed building which actually consists of two houses one behind the other. The front house was probably built in 1425. The original building would have been an open hall with galleries at either end. The main brick chimney stack and the floors were added in the 17th Century, and the main layout of the building dates from this period.
The ‘Crow's Nest’ cottage, which stands behind it and is now the managers' cottage, is older and was built in the 13th Century as a malt house. It may pre-date the building of Winchelsea “New Town” in 1288 and so may be one of the oldest buildings in the area.
A great storm in 1222 destroyed old Winchelsea which now lies about a mile out to sea. The new Winchelsea was then built by Edward 1st. At this time, the sea came right up to Strand House car park.
Strand House stood on the quay of the town next to the fish market, which is now under the main road. This must have been a busy area as the remains of other buildings can be seen in the field opposite.
The town went into decline in the 15th century due to the port silting up and turning the lowland areas into marshes, making it an ideal landing spot for contraband. In fact, there's a smugglers tunnel at the rear of the house, reputed to lead up to the Armoury in Winchelsea. In 1780, there was an armed clash between the Excise men and smugglers in the adjoining meadow.
In the 19th Century, Winchelsea became popular with Victorian artists and the house was sketched by JMW Turner, and it almost appeared in a landscape by John Everett Millais. The artists' community included writers such as Joseph Conrad (The Typhoon) and Ford Maddox Ford (Parade's End, which was a recent BBC drama series).
Strand House, The Strand, Winchelsea, East Sussex, TN36 4JT
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